Tufted Hair-grass |
Deschampsia cespitosa |
Sometimes taken to include D alpina, which is here treated separately.
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Photo © Carl Farmer |
Common in damp grassland, woods and moorland. Spikelets c 3-4 mm. A tall grass (in lowland conditions), up to 150 cm high. Ligule c 4-10 mm. Leaves c 2-5 mm wide. ID: Much-branched drooping panicle with multitude of small spikelets each containing two awned florets. Awns not or hardly protruding beyond tips of glumes. Other features: Forms large tussocks, very distinctive, panicle very graceful. Spikelets often variegated with purple, silver and green, or similar colours. They have one floret higher than the other by about a fifth of its length, each floret with a lemma having an awn arising from near the base. |
![]() Photo ©
Carl Farmer |