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Downy Oat-grass, Avenula pubescens, Helictotrichon pubescens

Downy Oat-grass
Avenula pubescens (Helictotrichon pubescens)
Coirce clumhach
Family: Poaceae

Flowering May-July. Perennial. Native.
(Previously Avenula pubescens.) Identified by Paul Green.

Branched, spreading flowerheads with 2-4 flowers in each spikelet, the glumes nearly as long as the flowers. Soft, flat leaves with split, +/- downy sheaths and long, acute ligules.

Found on unimproved neutral to calcareous grasslands, roadsides, dunes and banks. Can be locally frequent in central Ireland.

Similar: False Oat-grass, Arrhenatherum elatius


Downy Oat-grass, Helictotrichon pubescens       Downy Oat-grass, Helictotrichon pubescens


Downy Oat-grass, Helictotrichon pubescens
Downy Oat-grass, Avenula pubescens. Barley Cove, Co. Cork. June 2009

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