Big Muhly

Muhlenbergia lindheimeri

Hills guide picknative · Hill Country

Big Muhly is a grass native to the Texas Hill Country that grows 3–4 ft tall and 3–4 ft wide. It wants full sun or part shade and low to medium water, and handles caliche and clay soil. Blooms white in May–Nov. Deer rarely browse it. Good for birds and small mammals.

Wet ground only. Usually found in wetlands and creek bottoms. It wants reliably moist ground and struggles in a dry upland bed.

Will it grow in your yard?

Enter your ZIP. The finder checks Big Muhly against your microclimate, then ranks it against your sun, your watering and deer pressure.

From our guide

Village of the Hills

Large clumping bunchgrass, blue-green, with tall airy seed heads in fall that catch low light.

Why it works here

Structural year-round presence, holds a slope, and asks for nothing. Excellent nesting material and winter cover.

Watch out

Cut back to a few inches in late winter. Give it four feet — it gets bigger than the tag says.

The facts

8 sources

Type: Grass
Sun: Full sun to part shade (3+ hrs)
Water: Low to medium
Height: 3–4 ft
Spread: 3–4 ft
Bloom: May–Nov · white
Foliage: Deciduous
Soil: Takes caliche and clay · recorded on calcareous, rocky, sand, well drained
Deer: High — deer rarely browse it. Grasses generally ignored
Wildlife: Supports birds, browsing mammals, deer and small mammals

Size, sun, water and foliage from the Village of the Hills guide; the rest resolved across sources.

Where it grows

Recorded in these EPA Level IV ecoregions in the Austin and Hill Country launch area:

Balcones CanyonlandsLlano UpliftEdwards Plateau WoodlandNorthern Blackland Prairie

928 occurrence records in Central Texas (GBIF).

Can you buy it?

In the Village of the Hills guide, but not on the grower stock lists we read yet. Ask a native-plant nursery.

also grows from seed It starts readily from seed, so a packet from a native-seed supplier, or seed collected with permission, is often the easiest way to get a plant no nursery pots.