Northeast Wetland Flora
Field Office Guide to Plant Species
Agrostis scabra Willd.
- Family: Grass (Gramineae)
- Flowering: June-November
- Field Marks: The characters that distinguish this species from others in the genus are its rough panicle branches, its panicles at least half the height of the entire plant, and its longer spikelets 1/10-1/6 inch long.
- Habitat: Moist or dry open soil.
- Habit: Tufted perennial grass without rhizomes or stolons.
- Stems: Upright to spreading, very slender, smooth, up to 3 feet long.
- Leaves: Elongated, rolled into a narrow cylinder, ascending, up to 1/4 inch wide.
- Flowers: Borne in spikelets, the spikelets many in an open panicle, green or purple, the panicle up to 1 1/4 feet long, the very thread-like branches rough to the touch.
- Spikelets: 1-flowered, 1/10-1/6 inch long, the glumes very narrowly pointed at the tip, the lemmas with or without a short awn.
- Sepals: 0.
- Petals: 0.
- Stamens: 6.
- Pistils: Ovary superior.
- Fruits: Grains ellipsoid, smooth.
- Notes: Gleason and Cronquist call this plant A. hyemalis var. scabra of the Poaceae. This species is also known as ticklegrass or hairgrass. This species has been introduced from eastern Asia.
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