 Photo ©
Carl Farmer |
Fairly common in alkaline grassland and limestone crevices. These pictures taken in very windy conditions; hoping for better ones at some point. Spikelets c 10-16 mm. Plant typical medium grass height, 30-100 cm tall. Skye ID: Lower sheaths hairy. Panicle branches in whorls of 3 or more, many with only one spikelet, normally none with more than 3 spikelets. Spikelets normally have 2-3 flowers, all with awns protruding from the spikelet, the length of protruding awn not dissimilar to the length of the spikelet. Other features: Looks like a subdued version of Tall Oat Grass, but that has just one awn sticking out of most spikelets, our species has 2 or 3 (usually 2 from specimens I've examined on Skye). Meadow Oat Grass has 3-6. Yellow Oat Grass has 2-4 but the spikelets are much smaller than our species, about 6 mm long. Ligule c 3-7 mm long. Lower leaves may be hairy like the sheaths, upper leaves hairless. |
