''Poa trivialis'' (rough bluegrass; ''UK:'' rough-stalked meadow-grass or rough meadow-grass), is a

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 ...

plant regarded in the US as an

ornamental plant Ornamental plants or ''garden plants'' are plants that are primarily grown for their beauty but also for qualities such as scent or how they shape physical space. Many flowering plants and garden varieties tend to be specially bred cultivars th ...

. It is part of 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

It is very common in

meadows A meadow ( ) is an open habitat or field, vegetated by grasses, herbs, and other non-woody plants. Trees or shrubs may sparsely populate meadows, as long as they maintain an open character. Meadows can occur naturally under favourable condition ...

and

pastures Pasture (from the Latin ''pastus'', past participle of ''pascere'', "to feed") is land used for grazing. Types of pasture Pasture lands in the narrow sense are enclosed tracts of farmland, grazed by domesticated livestock, such as horses, c ...

throughout

Britain Britain most often refers to: * Great Britain, a large island comprising the countries of England, Scotland and Wales * The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, a sovereign state in Europe comprising Great Britain and the north-eas ...

. Its preferred habitat is moist, sheltered places. Its herbage is plentiful and fairly nutritious, though not as much as ''

Poa annua ''Poa annua'', or annual meadow grass (known in America more commonly as annual bluegrass or simply poa), is a widespread low-growing turfgrass in temperate climates. Notwithstanding the reference to annual plant in its name, perennial bio-types ...

'' or ''

Poa pratensis ''Poa pratensis'', commonly known as Kentucky bluegrass (or blue grass), smooth meadow-grass, or common meadow-grass, is a perennial species of grass native to practically all of Europe, North Asia and the mountains of Algeria, Morocco, and Tuni ...

''. It is useful for grazing on heavy and damp soil. It also copes well with the

polluted Pollution is the introduction of contaminants into the natural environment that cause harm. Pollution can take the form of any substance (solid, liquid, or gas) or energy (such as radioactivity, heat, sound, or light). Pollutants, the component ...

atmosphere An atmosphere () is a layer of gases that envelop an astronomical object, held in place by the gravity of the object. A planet retains an atmosphere when the gravity is great and the temperature of the atmosphere is low. A stellar atmosph ...

of towns and cities. It is in flower from June onwards throughout the summer. It is often considered a weed of

golf course A golf course is the grounds on which the sport of golf is played. It consists of a series of holes, each consisting of a teeing ground, tee box, a #Fairway and rough, fairway, the #Fairway and rough, rough and other hazard (golf), hazards, and ...

s. It is an invasive species in the

Great Lakes The Great Lakes, also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes spanning the Canada–United States border. The five lakes are Lake Superior, Superior, Lake Michigan, Michigan, Lake Huron, H ...

region and was first sighted in 1843. It has short

stolon In biology, a stolon ( from Latin ''wikt:stolo, stolō'', genitive ''stolōnis'' – "branch"), also known as a runner, is a horizontal connection between parts of an organism. It may be part of the organism, or of its skeleton. Typically, animal ...

s. The leaves are broad and tapering, and the sheathes are very rough. It has shiny leaves like '' Lolium perenne'' and

crested dog's-tail ''Cynosurus cristatus'', the crested dog's-tail, is a short-lived perennial grass in the family Poaceae, characterised by a seed head that is flat on one side. It typically grows in species rich grassland. It thrives in a variety of soil types ...

. They have pointed

ligule A ligule (from "strap", variant of ''lingula'', from ''lingua'' "tongue") is a thin outgrowth at the junction of leaf A leaf (: leaves) is a principal appendage of the plant stem, stem of a vascular plant, usually borne laterally above g ...

s 4–10 mm (3/16 – 3/8 in.) long. Compare to annual meadow grass ''

'' which is silvery and pointed, and common meadow grass ''

'' which is short and blunt. The roughish, slender stem grows 30 to 60 cm (1 to 2 ft.) high. Compare with smooth meadow grass ''

'' which has a smooth stem. The

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 ...

is green and 15 cm (6 in.) long. The

spikelet A spikelet, in botany, describes the typical arrangement of the inflorescences of grasses, sedges and some other monocots. Each spikelet has one or more florets. The spikelets are further grouped into panicles or spikes. The part of the sp ...

s are egg-shaped. It has a loose, whorled green

, much branched, 15 cm (6 in.) long. It is also called

Orcheston Orcheston ) is a Civil parishes in England, civil parish and village in Wiltshire, England, lying on Salisbury Plain less than a mile north-west of neighbouring Shrewton. The present-day parish combines the two former parishes of Orcheston St Ma ...

grass, after a village on

Salisbury Plain Salisbury Plain is a chalk plateau in southern England covering . It is part of a system of chalk downlands throughout eastern and southern England formed by the rocks of the Chalk Group and largely lies within the county of Wiltshire, but st ...

.Martin John Sutton, ''Permanent and Temporary Pastures'' (1929), p. 60

Wildlife value

The food plant of the caterpillars of small heath (

Coenonympha pamphilus The small heath (''Coenonympha pamphilus'') is a butterfly species belonging to the family Nymphalidae, classified within the subfamily Satyrinae (commonly known as "the browns"). It is the smallest butterfly in this subfamily. The small heath i ...

meadow brown The meadow brown (''Maniola jurtina'') is a butterfly found in the Palearctic realm. Its range includes Europe south of 62°N, Russia eastwards to the Urals, Asia Minor, Iraq, Iran, North Africa and the Canary Islands. The larvae feed on grasse ...

(''Maniola jurtina''),

gatekeeper A gatekeeper is a person who controls access to something, for example via a city gate or bouncer, or more abstractly, controls who is granted access to a category or status. Gatekeepers assess who is "in or out", in the classic words of manage ...

(''Pyronia tithonus'') butterflies; common sun beetle (''

Amara aenea ''Amara aenea'' is a ground beetle common in almost the whole of Europe and Northern Asia. Its range covers also parts of Northern Africa. It is known as the common sun beetle. ''A. aenea'' adults are predators that eat other insects, such as th ...

'') – adults feed on the developing seeds, ''

Eupelix cuspidata ''Eupelix cuspidata'' is a species of true bug Hemiptera (; ) is an order of insects, commonly called true bugs, comprising more than 80,000 species within groups such as the cicadas, aphids, planthoppers, leafhoppers, assassin bugs, bed bu ...

'' of the

leafhopper Leafhopper is the common name for any species from the family (biology), family Cicadellidae: based on the type genus ''Cicadella''. These minute insects, colloquially known as hoppers, are plant feeders that suck plant sap from grass, shrubs, or ...

family, and ''

Myrmus miriformis ''Myrmus'' is a genus of Palaearctic bugs in the subfamily Rhopalinae and tribe Chorosomatini, erected by Carl Wilhelm Hahn Carl Wilhelm Hahn (Lat. ''Carolus Guilielmus Hahn'', 16 December 1786 – 7 November 1835) was a German zoologist ...

'' a grassbug – feeds on young blades and developing seeds. It is parasitised by grass mildew ''

Blumeria graminis ''Blumeria graminis'' (commonly called barley powdery mildew, wheat mildew or corn mildew) is a fungus that causes powdery mildew on grasses, including cereals. It is the only species in the genus ''Blumeria''. It has also been called ''Erysiphe ...

'', which causes a white, powdery mildew on it.

Photos

File:Ruwbeemdgras Poa trivialis ligula.jpg, Pointed ligules 4–10 mm (0.2–0.4 in.) long File:Poa.trivialis.jpg, Loose, whorled green panicle, much branched, 15 cm (6 in.) long

References

* * The Observers Book of Grasses, Sedges and Rushes. Frances Rose. pp. 44–45
Natural England description on website
* Grasses, Ferns, Mosses and Lichens of Great Britain and Ireland. Phillips, Roger. 1980. p. 65.

External links

Kew gardens grass databaseGLANSIS Species FactSheet
{{Taxonbar, from=Q159118 trivialis Plants described in 1753 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus Flora of Malta Grasses of Lebanon