''Anthoxanthum odoratum'', known as sweet vernal grass, is a short-lived

perennial A perennial plant or simply perennial is a plant that lives more than two years. The term ('' per-'' + '' -ennial'', "through the years") is often used to differentiate a plant from shorter-lived annuals and biennials. The term is also wid ...

grass that is native to acidic

grassland A grassland is an area where the vegetation is dominated by grasses ( Poaceae). However, sedge ( Cyperaceae) and rush ( Juncaceae) can also be found along with variable proportions of legumes, like clover, and other herbs. Grasslands occur na ...

Eurasia Eurasia (, ) is the largest continental area on Earth, comprising all of Europe and Asia. Primarily in the Northern and Eastern Hemispheres, it spans from the British Isles and the Iberian Peninsula in the west to the Japanese archipelago ...

and northern Africa. It is grown as a

lawn A lawn is an area of soil-covered land planted with grasses and other durable plants such as clover which are maintained at a short height with a lawnmower (or sometimes grazing animals) and used for aesthetic and recreational purposes. ...

grass and a

house plant A houseplant, sometimes known as a pot plant, potted plant, or an indoor plant, is an ornamental plant that is grown indoors. As such, they are found in places like residences and offices, mainly for decorative purposes. Common houseplants are us ...

, due to its sweet scent, and can also be found on unimproved pastures and meadows. The specific epithet ''odoratum'' is Latin for 'odorous'.

Description

''Anthoxanthum odaoratum'' is a short-lived perennial grass that grows in tufts with stems up to tall. The leaves are short and broad, wide, and glabrous to loosely hairy. It flowers in late spring and early summer, i.e. quite early in the season, with flower spikes of long and crowded spikelets of , oblong shaped, which can be quite dark when young. The lower lemmas have projecting awns. The ligules are quite long, up to , blunt, with hairy fringes around the side. The scent is particularly strong when dried, and is due to

coumarin Coumarin () or 2''H''-chromen-2-one is an aromatic organic chemical compound with formula . Its molecule can be described as a benzene molecule with two adjacent hydrogen atoms replaced by a lactone-like chain , forming a second six-membered h ...

, a

glycoside In chemistry, a glycoside is a molecule in which a sugar is bound to another functional group via a glycosidic bond. Glycosides play numerous important roles in living organisms. Many plants store chemicals in the form of inactive glycoside ...

, and

benzoic acid Benzoic acid is a white (or colorless) solid organic compound with the formula , whose structure consists of a benzene ring () with a carboxyl () substituent. It is the simplest aromatic carboxylic acid. The name is derived from gum benzoin, ...

– it smells like fresh

hay Hay is grass, legumes, or other herbaceous plants that have been cut and dried to be stored for use as animal fodder, either for large grazing animals raised as livestock, such as cattle, horses, goats, and sheep, or for smaller domesticat ...

with a hint of

vanilla Vanilla is a spice derived from orchids of the genus ''Vanilla (genus), Vanilla'', primarily obtained from pods of the Mexican species, flat-leaved vanilla (''Vanilla planifolia, V. planifolia''). Pollination is required to make the p ...

. The seed head is bright yellow in color. ''Anthoxanthum odoratum'' is experiencing

parapatric speciation In parapatric speciation, two subpopulations of a species evolve reproductive isolation from one another while continuing to exchange genes. This mode of speciation has three distinguishing characteristics: 1) mating occurs non-randomly, 2) gene ...

in areas of mine contamination.

Distribution

''Anthoxanthum odoratum'' is native to Europe and temperate parts of Asia, but is widely introduced and naturalised so that distribution is now Circumpolar Wide-temperate. It is ubiquitous at the 10 km square level in Britain.

Cultivation

It is grown by scattering seed on tilled ground in the spring through fall, germinating in 4 to 5 days. It prefers sandy loam and acidic conditions (a low pH). As an agricultural grass it has a low yield, but can grow on land too acidic for other grasses.

Gallery

Image:Anthoxanthum odoratum.jpg Image:Anthoxanthum odoratum (Billeder af nordens flora 1917ff., v2 0427) clean, no-description.jpg Image:Illustration_Anthoxanthum_odoratum0.jpg Image:AnthoxanthumOdoratum.jpg Image:anthoxanthum_odoratum_aehrchen_detail.jpeg Image:anthoxanthum_odoratum_aehre.jpeg Image:anthoxanthum_odoratum_scheidenhaare.jpeg Image:anthoxanthum_odoratum_blatt.jpeg Image:Anthoxanthum.odoratum.jpg Image:Anthoxanthum.odoratum.2.jpg Image:Anthoxanthum.odoratum.3.jpg

References

External links