Flat spike with single spikelets set edge-on to the stalk, alternating up both sides like a ladder
Perennial ryegrass.
Nature · Ferns, grasses & other plants
Perennial ryegrass
Native · flowers May–summer · to about 50 cm · pasture, verges and lawns
Lolium perenne — Poaceae
Perennial ryegrass is the sown grass of Britain: the mainstay of leys, playing fields and lawns, and a common wild plant of roadsides, rough pasture and waste ground. It has been valued as a forage crop since the 1600s. Its flat, two-ranked flower spike, with single spikelets set edge-on to the stem, separates it at once from the couch grasses.
How to spot them
- ▸Flat, two-ranked flower spike like a fishbone, with unstalked spikelets set edge-on to the axis and no awns
- ▸Shiny, dark green underside to the leaves; leaves folded in the bud shoot
- ▸Only the terminal spikelet has two outer glumes; the others have one each
- ▸Tufted, without creeping rhizomes; often at the edge of fields, tracks, playing fields and lawns
- ▸Look-alikes: couch grass has spikelets facing broadside on to the stem and creeping rhizomes; Italian rye-grass has awns and leaves rolled in bud
How to know it
The classic sown grass of leys and pitches, widely used since the 1600s as a forage crop
Perennial ryegrass — Wildlife Trusts.
Each unawned spikelet is set edgewise to the stem, unlike its lookalike couch, whose spikelets face the stem broadside
Perennial ryegrass.
Its genus name is the Latin word for darnel, a weedy cereal contaminant
Perennial ryegrass — Lolium.
Wimbledon's grass courts are sown entirely with this species
Perennial ryegrass — a hard-wearing sports grass.
Quick-fire facts
- •Up to about 50 cm tall and visible year-round, according to the Wildlife Trusts
- •Grown as a forage crop since the 1600s; once the most commonly sown grass in leys
- •Spikelets alternate along the stem, distinguishing it from similar grasses; the flat spike is like a two-ranked fishbone
- •Can behave as an annual or persist as a perennial
- •Lolium is the Latin word for darnel, a weed of corn (Lolium temulentum), a relative in the same genus
- •Widely used for lawns, playing fields and racecourses; Wimbledon's Centre Court is sown wholly with perennial ryegrass
- •A member of Poaceae; it is a flowering plant, its wind-pollinated flowers small and green with yellow anthers
Drill it — 5 cards
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Sources
- The Wildlife Trusts — Perennial rye-grass