False Oat Grass

Name: False Oat Grass

Scientific name: Arrhenatherum elatius

Category: Grasses

Nature Stars: 20

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About:

False Oat-grass is a very tall, fluffy-looking grass that grows on roadside verges and disturbed grounds.

It's incredibly common, and may well be familiar as the grass that so many of us catch in our hands and absent-mindedly strip of its seeds as we walk along.

How to identify: At the stop of the False Oat-grass's stem, a groups of brownish, oval spikelets hangs. False Oat-grass mainly flowers from May to September, but can continue until the first frosts.

Where: Widespread.

Fantastic fact: This grass is actually very important in stabilizing dunes and cliffs.

Photograph credit: Philip Precey