 Photo ©
Carl Farmer |
Common on roadsides and rough ground Flower spike 1-15 cm long, 3-10 mm wide. Skye ID: Told from Foxtails by spike having less tapered base and tip, so being parallel-sided for > 90% of its length, and glumes having horizontally spreading stiff hairs longer than the width from glume midrib to margin. Other features: Very variable owing to strains developed for hay and grazing. The only difference between the two subspecies is size of all parts. Probably the most reliable is the size of spikelet including awn. In P pratense s.s. it is > 4 mm, in P bertolonii it is < 4 mm. But with so many cultivars of both subspecies in existence there is a complete continuum between them. |
