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Northeast Wetland Flora

Field Office Guide to Plant Species

Reed Meadowgrass
Glyceria maxima (Hartm.) O.R. Holmberg

JPG -- Species Photo JPG -- Distribution Map

Family: Grass (Gramineae)
Flowering: June-August
Field Marks: The distinguishing features of this meadowgrass are the spikelets up to 1/3 inch long, the inflorescence up to 1 1/2 feet long, and the sharply nerved lemmas.
Habitat: Wet ditches, wet meadows, stream banks.
Habit: Tufted perennial from thickened rootstocks.
Stems: Upright, branched or unbranched, smooth, up to 5 feet tall.
Leaves: Elongated, flat, smooth or rough to the touch, up to 3/4 inch wide; sheaths closed and fused, more or less smooth.
Flowers: Borne in spikelets arranged in a much branched panicle up to 1 1/2 feet long; spikelets 4- to 8-flowered, purplish or yellowish, up to 1/2 inch long.
Glumes: Lanceolate, pointed at the tip, whitish and sometimes membranaceous, up to 1/8 inch long.
Lemmas: Narrowly ovate, purplish, rounded at the tip, sharply nerved, a little longer than the glumes.
Sepals: 0.
Petals: 0.
Stamens: 3.
Pistils: Ovary superior, smooth.
Fruits: Grains ellipsoid, smooth.
Notes: In the past this species has usually been considered a part of Glyceria grandis and still appears as this in some recent texts including Gleason and Cronquist. Gleason and Cronquist call this family Poaceae. The grains are eaten by waterfowl.

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