Anthoxanthum odoratum L.
sweet vernal
Tufted perennials, 12-50-(90) cm, strongly coumarin-scented. Leaf-sheath firmly membranous, glabrous or sparsely hairy, especially towards ligule, ± bearded on margins near collar, sometimes with one minute lateral auricle. Ligule 0.6-5 mm, truncate to somewhat tapered, minutely ciliate. Leaf-blade (1)-3.5-18-(25) cm × 2-6.5-(10) mm, glabrous or hairy, ribs smooth or minutely scaberulous, tip acute to acuminate. Culm erect or spreading, simple, internodes glabrous. Panicle 1.5-10-(16) × (0.5)-1-2-(4) cm, cylindric to ± ovate, dense, branches very rarely obvious; rachis glabrous, branches and pedicels short-hairy or very rarely glabrous. Spikelets 7-9.5 mm, green or brownish green, sometimes proliferous. Glumes ± hairy, very rarely glabrous or minutely scabrid, acute to shortly mucronate; lower c. ½ length of upper, 1-nerved, ovate, upper > florets and enclosing them, 3-nerved, ovate-lanceolate. Ø florets: lemma 3-3.5 mm, oblong, firmly membranous, brown and hairy below, hyaline above, apex bifid, with short obtuse lobes; awn of lower floret 2.4-3.8 mm, straight, inserted above midpoint, awn of second floret 6.3-8.5 mm, curved near base, inserted near base of lemma and often slightly projecting beyond upper glumes; palea 0 in both florets. ⚥ floret: lemma 1.4-2.2 mm, orbicular, smooth; palea = lemma, narrow-lanceolate; anthers (2.5)-3.5-4.7 mm; caryopsis 1.4-1.9 × 0.5-1 mm. Plate 4E.
N.; S.: throughout; St.; K., Ch., A., C. Roadsides, waste land, pasture and tussock grassland, in scrub or forest clearings, sometimes in boggy, or sandy or rocky, stony ground; sea level to subalpine.
Naturalised.
Indigenous to Europe, northern Asia and north-west Africa.
Some plants from Horseshoe Bay, Stewart Id, CHR 369379 H. D. Wilson 2.10.1979, with an exceedingly long panicle, 24 cm, grew amongst plants of A. odoratum in which the panicles were of average length.
