Dactylis glomerata L.
cocksfoot
Dense, coarse, often greyish green tufts, 25-120 cm; branching intra-vaginal, shoots compressed. Leaf-sheath green to pale brown, subcoriaceous, keeled, ribs finely prickle-toothed or minutely hairy. Ligule 3-10.5 mm, acute, erose or sometimes ciliate, abaxially smooth, or with minute hairs or prickle-teeth. Leaf-blade (7)-15-55 cm × 1.5-9 mm, flat, midrib strong, lateral ribs fine, ribs, margins and acicular tip scabrid. Culm 15-95 cm, erect or spreading, internodes glabrous. Panicle (5)-7-20-(45) cm, secund, with spikelets in dense spike-like clusters at tips of few, strong, scabrid branches; lower branches often distant, naked below. Spikelets 6-8 mm, 3-7-flowered, stiff, almost sessile, oblong or cuneate, light green or purplish; often proliferous. Glumes per-sistent, unequal, membranous, ovate-lanceolate, strongly keeled; lower 3-5 mm, acute, upper 4-6 mm, acuminate, keel scabrid to long-ciliate. Lemma 4.5-6.5-(7) mm, 5-nerved, ovate-lanceolate, sparsely pubescent, scabrid, papillose or glabrous, keel scabrid to long-ciliate, margins hyaline, scabrid; awn terminal 0.2-1.2 mm. Palea ≤ lemma, keels short-ciliate, interkeel finely scabrid. Anthers 2-3.5 mm. Caryopsis c. 1 × 0.5 mm.
N.: throughout, but rare in the north, and in the east from East Cape southwards; S.: common in the east in the upper half, rare in the west and in Otago and Southland; St.; K., Ch., C. Lowland in waste ground, pasture, gardens and dune hollows, to subalpine in short tussock grassland and scrub.
Naturalised.
An important pasture grass; native to Europe, North Africa and temperate Asia and now naturalised in temperate regions in both Hemispheres.
