categoryZGrasses Grasses List 

BLACK GRASS

BLACK-GRASS

Alopecurus myosuroides

Grasses Family [Poaceae]

month8may month8jun month8june month8jul month8july month8aug

category
category8Grasses
status
statusZarchaeophyte
flower
flower8green
inner
inner8orange
petals
petalsZ0
type
typeZspiked
stem
stem8round
sex
sexZbisexual

9th July 2014, SU44, Hampshire. Photo: © Simon Melville
Black Grass is an annual growing to 80cm and is the bane of all farmers whose fields it invades - who are mostly in the South, Central and Eastern England but is usefully declining.


9th July 2014, SU44, Hampshire. Photo: © Simon Melville
The panicles of flowers are betwen 2 and 12cm long (quite a range) but also a quite narrow 0.3 to 0.6cm wide.


9th July 2014, SU44, Hampshire. Photo: © Simon Melville
The pairs of styles are white and curve away from each other. The stems and sheaths are a glaucous-green.


9th July 2014, SU44, Hampshire. Photo: © Simon Melville
The flowers of this specimen are just bursting open the sheath they were raised inside. The tiny anthers are yellowish-brown (only a few visible here).


It is an annual (most other Alopecurus species are perennial) archaeophyte and found mainly as a troublesome weed of arable fields and a weed of waste grounds, but it is on the wane in the South, Central and Eastern England. And only very scattered locations in the South-west of England and Wales; also the East and South-west of Ireland and Murray where it is there mostly a casual weed. It is a frost-tolerant winter annual, usually germinating in Autumn and over-winters as a small plant and growing tall in summer - with large plants shedding up to 8000 seeds before a typical wheat crop has been harvested. Additionally, it has adapted tolerance to several herbicides and is difficult to eradicate.


  Alopecurus myosuroides  ⇐ Global Aspect ⇒ Poaceae  

Distribution
 family8Grasses family8Poaceae
 BSBI maps
genus8Alopecurus
Alopecurus
(Foxtails)

BLACK GRASS

BLACK-GRASS

Alopecurus myosuroides

Grasses Family [Poaceae]