Meadow-grasses and Similar Species
Grasses - Poaceae
See also open-headed grasses.
Annual Meadow-grass Poa annuaNative throughout Eurasia and south into East Africa. Widely introduced elsewhere. Leaves hairless, pointed at the tip or slightly rounded and hooded, 1-5mm wide. Flower spike open and spreading at anthesis and remaining open at fruiting. Spikelets densely packed with 3-10 florets. Anthers prominent at anthesis, 0.6-0.8mm and 2-3x as long as wide. Plants in dry places can be very small and compact, but more open and spreading in shady or wetter places.
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Early Meadow-grass Poa infirma
Native from western and southern Europe, eastwards through the Mediterranean Region to China. Leaves hairless, pointed at the tip or slightly rounded, 1-4mm wide. Flower spike rather compact at anthesis but open at fruiting. Spikelets densely packed with 2-4 florets. Anthers prominent at anthesis, but tiny, 0.2-0.5mm and 1-1.5x as long as wide. Very like a small Annual Meadow-grass but tending to be more yellowish-green in colour and flowering for a relatively short period in spring.
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Bulbous Meadow-grass Poa bulbosa
Native throughout Europe and the Mediterranean Region, eastwards to Central Asia. Plants in Greece tend to be of the viviparous form, where small plantlets develop in the 'flower spikes' rather than flowers and seeds.
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Smooth Meadow-grass Poa pratensis
Native throughout the temperate and warm temperate Northern Hemisphere. Widely introduced elsewhere. Plants 10-80cm in height according to habitat (shorter in dry, open places, taller when among other plants or in shade) and spreading to form extensive patches. Leaf blades and sheaths hairless, pointed at the tip or slightly rounded and hooded, 2-5mm wide. Leaf ligule membranous, short. Flower spike open and spreading at anthesis and remaining open at fruiting, with 3-5 branches at the lowest node. Spikelets densely packed with 2-5 florets.
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Rough Meadow-grass Poa trivialis
Native throughout Eurasia and the Mediterranean Region. Plants 20-100cm in height and spreading to form extensive patches by means of many, non-flowering shoots (tillers). Leaf blades 1.5-6mm wide, hairless, pointed at the tip. Leaf sheaths keeled, slightly rough to the touch. Leaf ligule membranous, long. Flower spike open and spreading at anthesis and remaining open at fruiting, with 3-7 branches at the lowest node. Spikelets densely packed with 2-4 florets.
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Water Bent Polypogon viridis
Native throughout the Mediterranean Region to Central Asia, the Arabian Peninsula and India. Plants 10-60cm in height with perennial plants forming creeping stolons and tufted patches. Leaf blades 2-10mm wide, hairless but a little rough to the touch, pointed at the tip. Leaf sheaths rounded, smooth. Leaf ligule membranous, rounded, 1.5-6mm long. Flower spike narrow when young, open and spreading at anthesis and remaining open at fruiting. Spikelets tiny, 1.7-2.2mm, very numerous, not clustered towards the tips of the branchlets with a single floret in each spikelet. Lemmas not awned. Rather distinctive once known, with relatively broad leaves held out, flag-like, from the flower spikes and with a dense mass of florets, but easily mistaken for a small meadow-grass at first.
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Beach Dropseed Sporobolus pungens
Native throughout the Mediterranean Region to the Levant and North-west Africa. A very common grass of coastal sands and upper edges of saltmarsh. Typically a low-growing species with extensive, creeping root systems, but can grow quite tall in mobile sand dune areas.
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