tufted hair grass (South Georgia Flora)

tufted hair grass

Deschampsia cespitosa

Summary ²

Deschampsia cespitosa, commonly known as tufted hairgrass or tussock grass is a perennial tufted plant in the grass family Poaceae. Distribution of this Deschampsia grass species is widespread including the eastern and western coasts of North America, parts of South America, Eurasia and Australia.

Tufted hair grass is a densely tufted perennial grass, growing up to 150 cm tall, often forming large tussocks. Ligule: a narrow, sharply pointed membrane 4.5-14 mm long. Leaf blades flat or loosely inrolled, 2-4 mm wide, coarsely scabrid on the margins and upper surface, smooth below; prominent and even veins. Flowers: panicle very open and loose, 15-35 mm long; spikelets 2-flowered, green, often variegated with silver, gold or purple; glumes unequal or subequal, the lower 2.5-4 mm long, the upper 2.8-4.8 mm long; lemma 2.6-3.9 mm long, awned from near the base, awn 2-4 mm long. Fruits dispersed by wind and animals; seeds viable in the soil for 1-5 years. Most abundant on acid soils.

Distribution ³

Comments ⁴

Emerging leaf rolled, youngest leaf folded in shoot
Strongly ribbed and rough hairless leaf with pointed tip
very long pointed ligule to 15mm
Tall silvery flower heads, Dark green leaves 2-5mm wide

Sources and Credits

(c) Kelvin Floyd, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), uploaded by Kelvin Floyd
Adapted by stuwhiterod from a work by (c) Wikipedia, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deschampsia_cespitosa
(c) stuwhiterod, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)
Adapted by stuwhiterod from a work by (c) Kelvin Floyd, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)

More Info

iNat Map

Group	Grass
Category	Non Native

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