Gallery: Garden meadow grasses, rushes and sedges |  |
Grasses are amazingly beautiful plants when left to flower. Many people have a good variety of them but are unaware of their beauty because all of their grass is kept closely mown.
Pictures
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The woodrushes are not grasses at all but very attractive members of the rush family. Field woodrush (Luzula campestris) is widespread and common. It is a welcome low-growing constituent of the lawn at the front of my own house.
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Cocksfoot (Dactylis glomerata) gets its common name from the shape of the fully opened inflorescence (as here) which is said to resemble the foot of a fowl. This is a taller grass which may occur in your garden at the along the margins of a hedge for example.
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Crested dog's tail (Cynosurus cristatus) is a very attractive grass which may well crop up in your garden.
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Sweet vernal grass (Anthoxanthum odoratum) gives newly mown hay its characteristic sweet smell.
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Meadow foxtail (Alopecurus pratensis) is one of the most beautiful of our early flowering grasses and typical of hay meadows. On this picture you can clearly see the anthers covered in yellow pollen. | | Click to enlarge | |
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Do you live in Merseyside? Interested in its wildlife? | 