Alopecurus pratensis L.
meadow foxtail
Loosely or compactly tufted tall perennials, often shortly rhizomatous. Leaf-sheath green, glabrous, striate, lower sheaths dark brown, sometimes purplish. Ligule (0.5)-1-2-(2.8) mm, membranous, blunt, sparsely ciliate, abaxially very minutely hairy. Leaf-blade 10-20-(30) cm × 2-5 mm, flat, finely ribbed, finely scabrid on ribs and margins, or almost glabrous, tapered to fine pointed tip. Culm 30-100 cm, erect or geniculate at base and rooting at lower nodes, nodes few, internodes ridged, glabrous. Panicle 3.5-9.5 cm, spike-like, with densely packed silvery green to purplish spikelets. Glumes 4-6 mm, ± equal, 3-nerved, margins united for ¼ length, acute, firm, finely hairy below, keeled, keel and lateral nerves fine-ciliate. Lemma 4-5.5 mm, 4-nerved, ovate or elliptic, blunt, membranous, keeled, keel finely hairy, margins united below midpoint; awn fine, 4.5-8-(9.5) mm, inserted near base, projecting 3-4 mm beyond glumes. Palea 0. Anthers 2-3.5 mm, yellow to purple. Caryopsis 1-1.2 × 0.6-0.8 mm.
N.: scattered, more common near Auckland City; S.: scattered in eastern areas, more common about Christchurch. Damp and swampy pasture, grassland, roadsides, often beside drains, and in damp, grassy waste land.
Naturalised from Eurasia.
Spikelets may be proliferous, e.g., CHR 96192 V. D. Zotov Palmerston North, May 1935.
