Northeast Wetland Flora
Field Office Guide to Plant Species
Alopecurus myosuroides Huds.
- Family: Grass (Gramineae)
- Flowering: May-September
- Field Marks: This foxtail differs from all others by its spikelets 1/4-1/3 inch long and the awn of the lemma 1/4-1/3 inch long.
- Habitat: Open areas, meadows, pastures, ditches.
- Habit: Annual grass with fibrous roots.
- Stems: Upright or ascending, slender, somewhat rough to the touch, up to 2 feet tall.
- Leaves: Elongated, flat, rough to the touch, 1/10-1/6 inch wide.
- Flowers: Borne in spikelets, with many spikelets crowded into slender, spike-like panicles, the panicles up to 4 inches long, up to 1/4 inch thick.
- Spikelets: 1-flowered, flat, 1/4-1/3 inch long, the glumes pointed, hairy only on the keel below the middle, the lemma longer than the glumes, with a slightly bent awn inserted near the base of the lemma and about twice as long as the glumes.
- Sepals: 0.
- Petals: 0.
- Stamens: 3.
- Pistils: Ovary superior.
- Fruits: Grains narrowly ellipsoid, smooth.
- Notes: Gleason and Cronquist call this family Poaceae. This species is a naturalized introduced species from Europe.
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