Pampas grass, also known as cortadera, is a giant grass native to southern South America that forms dense clumps and produces showy, white, feathery panicles.
| Kingdom | Plantae |
| Division | Magnoliophyta |
| Class | Liliopsida |
| Order | Poales |
| Family | Poaceae |
| Genus | Cortaderia |
| Species | Cortaderia selloana |
It is a large rhizomatous grass that can reach 3 metres in height. Its leaves are evergreen, long and thin, with very sharp edges that can cut the skin, hence the Spanish name “cortadera” (“cutter”).
Its most distinctive feature is the large, white, feathery panicle, between 30 and 90 cm long, made up of numerous spikelets.
It is native to southern South America, specifically the Pampas region and Patagonia, and is very hardy, able to tolerate a certain amount of salinity in the soil and water.
Outside its native ecosystem, pampas grass behaves as a highly damaging invasive species; in Spain it probably arrived around 1940, mixed in with grain in the holds of ships from Argentina.
