Nardus stricta

Photo © Carl Farmer
22 Aug 2002, Glamaig

Common on moorland and mountains, thriving on poor soils, especially where overgrazed.

Stems c 20-35 cm tall. Flower spikelets c 5-8 mm. Anthers c 3.5-4 mm.

Skye ID: One-sided flower-spike. Even withered specimens very easy to identify, and these persist till the following spring.

Other features: Leaves hard and bristle-like. Anthers yellow at first, then white, as in pic on left. Spikelets one-flowered, with very small lower glume and usually no upper glume.

Photo © Carl Farmer 22 Aug 2002, Glamaig	Photo © Carl Farmer 25 Aug 2002, Scorrybreac
Showing the purple lemmas, pressed against the stem, and the white anthers, 3 per flower.
	Typical autumn post-flowering specimen. Not much later in time than the one on the left, but on much lower ground. The lemmas have spread away from the stem so the one-sidedness of the flower spike is clearly seen.

Skye Flora