Grasses List |
Grasses Family [Poaceae] |
category
status
flower
petals
stem
8th June 2016, dunes, Hightown, Southport, Sefton Coast. | Photo: © RWD |
A young specimen: the flowering stems have not yet fully extended. |
8th June 2016, dunes, Hightown, Southport, Sefton Coast. | Photo: © RWD |
Another young specimen. The tiny, white flowering parts sticking out.
(Sea Sandwort in top LH corner). |
22nd June 2016, north shoreline, Southport, Sefton Coast. | Photo: © RWD |
Here it is right on the edge of the path and more or less on the normal high-tide limit where presumably it has found a niche, away from the salt-marsh plants which might crowd it out (such as the taller grasses behing it) and where the soil is trodden to keep at bay other plants. |
22nd June 2016, north shoreline, Southport, Sefton Coast. | Photo: © RWD |
It grows to about 40cm high and has straight stems (although a few might be curved like Curved Hard-grass(Parapholis incurva)) which is much shorter at only 10cm, has even smaller anthers, is rarer and does not occur anywhere near the Sefton Coast. |
22nd June 2016, north shoreline, Southport, Sefton Coast. | Photo: © RWD |
The two species taken together are distinctive and probably cannot be mistaken for any other grass. It is branched much lower down near the roots and has just a few short leaves. |
22nd June 2016, north shoreline, Southport, Sefton Coast. | Photo: © RWD |
It is a very thin, cylindrical grass, tapering to a double-point at the top. Distintively, it is sparsely populated by tiny white anthers which poke out from beneath a spikelet and dance about in the slightest breeze which are also easily knocked off. |
22nd June 2016, north shoreline, Southport, Sefton Coast. | Photo: © RWD |
Pairs of spikelets on opposite sides of the thin round stiff and hard stems adorn the stems, each with their own tiny dancing anthers. It ends in a pair of opposite spikelets which taper to a point. |
22nd June 2016, north shoreline, Southport, Sefton Coast. | Photo: © RWD |
The spikelets are alternately at right-angles to each other up the stem. The spikelets are shield-shaped and hug the stem when new. |
22nd June 2016, north shoreline, Southport, Sefton Coast. | Photo: © RWD |
The stem, from close-range, is not as round as it may at first appear, and bulges slightly at each spikelet. |
22nd June 2016, north shoreline, Southport, Sefton Coast. | Photo: © RWD |
22nd June 2016, north shoreline, Southport, Sefton Coast. | Photo: © RWD |
The grass from above, this specimen has been trampled flatter. |
22nd June 2016, north shoreline, Southport, Sefton Coast. | Photo: © RWD |
Half-way down the stem it looks like almost any other grass. |
Not to be semantically confused with : Hard-Fern (Blechnum spicant) or Hard Rush (Juncus inflexus) [plants with similar names belonging to differing families] Uniquely identifiable characteristics Distinguishing Feature : see photos and captions It is an annual grass which grows in bare or grassy places beside the sea, but not in it. It is very thin and hard and normally straight with tiny white anthers at intervals fluttering about in the slightest breeze.
Cleistogamy For Cleistogamy see Dog-Violet (Common) and |
Parapholis | strigosa | ⇐ Global Aspect ⇒ | Poaceae |
Parapholis (Hard-Grasses) |
Grasses Family [Poaceae] |