Bent
Grass (Agrostis)
By Bruce Homer-Smith
Agrostis is from the Greek word for
pasture. Bent grasses are commonly used
for forage and lawns. They’re in the Oat Tribe.
What to
look for:
·
Bent
Grasses grow to 3 feet tall.
·
Spikelets are small, flattened, and have one floret.
·
Glumes are long enough to hide the floret
Other
features (Perennial/annual, spike-like/branched, bunch/not, awns/not) are not
shared across the genus, so to get to genus you’ll have to carefully inspect
the spikelets or learn the plants from a teacher in the field.
Here
are some examples:
Photo by Keir Morse |
Spike Bentgrass(Agrostis exarata) Photo by Steve Matson |
Creeping Bentgrass (Agrostis gigantea) Photo by Steve Matson |
Mountain Bentgrass (Agrostis variabilis) Photo by Steve Matson |
California
has 22 species of Agrostis.
Corrections/Comments: bruce@PlantID.net Copyright: https://PlantID.net/Contributors.aspx |