''Arrhenatherum'', commonly called oat-grass or button-grass, is a

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

Eurasia Eurasia ( , ) is a continental area on Earth, comprising all of Europe and Asia. According to some geographers, Physical geography, physiographically, Eurasia is a single supercontinent. The concept of Europe and Asia as distinct continents d ...

n and

North Africa North Africa (sometimes Northern Africa) is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region. However, it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of t ...

n plants in the

grass family Poaceae ( ), also called Gramineae ( ), is a large and nearly ubiquitous family of monocotyledonous flowering plants commonly known as grasses. It includes the cereal grasses, bamboos, the grasses of natural grassland and species cultivated in ...

Description

Wild forms can resemble wild oat (''Avena'') or

fescue ''Festuca'' (fescue) is a genus of flowering plants belonging to the grass family Poaceae (subfamily Pooideae). They are evergreen or herbaceous perennial tufted grasses with a height range of and a cosmopolitan distribution, occurring on every ...

(''Festuca''). Oat-grasses are very common

perennial In horticulture, the term perennial ('' per-'' + '' -ennial'', "through the year") is used to differentiate a plant from shorter-lived annuals and biennials. It has thus been defined as a plant that lives more than 2 years. The term is also ...

s with yellowish

root In vascular plants, the roots are the plant organ, organs of a plant that are modified to provide anchorage for the plant and take in water and nutrients into the plant body, which allows plants to grow taller and faster. They are most often bel ...

s. The shining stems grow to a height of ,Streeter D, Hart-Davies C, Hardcastle A, Cole F, Harper L. 2009. ''Collins Flower Guide''. Harper Collins but die off in winter. The

leaves A leaf (: leaves) is a principal appendage of the stem of a vascular plant, usually borne laterally above ground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", while the leaves, stem, ...

are hairless with blunt ligules. The

inflorescence In botany, an inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a plant's Plant stem, stem that is composed of a main branch or a system of branches. An inflorescence is categorized on the basis of the arrangement of flowers on a mai ...

is a

panicle In botany, a panicle is a much-branched inflorescence. (softcover ). Some authors distinguish it from a compound spike inflorescence, by requiring that the flowers (and fruit) be pedicellate (having a single stem per flower). The branches of a p ...

with two-flowered bisexual spikelets. ; Species * ''

Arrhenatherum album ''Arrhenatherum'', commonly called oat-grass or button-grass, is a genus of Eurasian and North African plants in the grass family. Description Wild forms can resemble wild oat (''Avena'') or fescue (''Festuca''). Oat-grasses are very common per ...

'' - tall oat-grass - Mediterranean from Portugal to Cyprus * '' Arrhenatherum calderae'' - Tenerife in Canary Islands * ''

Arrhenatherum elatius ''Arrhenatherum elatius'' is a species of flowering plant in the grass family Poaceae, commonly known as false oat-grass, and also bulbous oat grass (subsp. ''bulbosum''), tall oat-grass, tall meadow oat, onion couch and tuber oat-grass. It is na ...

'' - false oat-grass, tall oat-grass, tall meadow oat - Eurasia + North Africa from Iceland to Canary Islands + Kazakhstan; naturalized in East Asia, Australia, New Zealand, the AmericasRosengurtt, B., B. R. A. Maffei & P. I. Artucio. 1970. Gramíneas Uruguayas –vii 1–489. Universidad de la República, Montevideo * '' Arrhenatherum kotschyii'' - Turkey, Caucasus, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Jordan, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan * '' Arrhenatherum longifolium'' - France, Spain, Portugal, Morocco * '' Arrhennatherum palaestinum'' - eastern Mediterranean from Greece to Iraq * ''

Arrhenatherum pallens ''Arrhenatherum'', commonly called oat-grass or button-grass, is a genus of Eurasian and North African plants in the grass family. Description Wild forms can resemble wild oat (''Avena'') or fescue (''Festuca''). Oat-grasses are very common per ...

'' - Portugal ; formerly included numerous species now considered better placed in other genera ''

Avenula ''Avenula'' is a genus of Eurasian flowering plants in the grass family. Over 100 names have been proposed for species, subspecies, varieties, and other infraspecific taxa within ''Avenula'', but only one species is accepted. The others names are ...

Danthoniastrum ''Danthoniastrum'' is a genus of Balkan and Caucasian plants in the grass family. ; Species * '' Danthoniastrum brevidentatum'' H.Scholz - Kosovo, Albania * '' Danthoniastrum compactum'' (Boiss. & Heldr.) Holub - Greece * '' Danthoniastrum kola ...

Duthiea ''Duthiea'' is a genus of Asian plants in the grass family. ; Species * '' Duthiea brachypodium'' (P.Candargy) Keng & Keng f. - Qinghai, Sichuan, Tibet, Yunnan, Bhutan, Nepal, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh * '' Duthiea bromoides'' Hack. - Jammu & ...

Helictochloa ''Helictochloa'' is a genus of Eurasian, North African, and North American plants in the grass family. ; Species See also * List of Poaceae genera Poaceae, also known as the true grasses, is the fourth largest plant family in the world wi ...

Helictotrichon ''Helictotrichon'', or alpine oatgrass, is a genus of perennial flowering plants in the grass family. The genus name comes from the Greek ''heliktos'' meaning twisted, and ''trichos'' meaning hair, referring to the shape of the awn. Most of the ...

Sphenopholis ''Sphenopholis'' is a genus of North American and Hawaiian plants in the grass family. They are known generally as wedgescales. ; Species * '' Sphenopholis filiformis'' - longleaf wedgescale - TX OK AR LA TN MS AL GA FL NC SC VA PA ...

References

{{Authority control Pooideae Poaceae genera Taxa named by Palisot de Beauvois