Lagurus ovatus

Samtgras ( Lagurus ovatus )

The Samtgras ( Lagurus ovatus ) is a plant of the family Gramineae ( Poaceae ) and the only species of the genus Lagurus. It is also called Hasenschwänzchen or bunny tail grass.

Description

The one-year grass growth reaches heights of 5 to 60 centimeters. It forms only single upright stems, rarely, open clumps with only a few nodes. The gray-green, flat leaves are hairy and velvety have more or less inflated leaf sheaths. The blunt and hairy ligule ( ligule ) is about 3 millimeters long.

The species is distinguished by the characteristic soft ear-like, very dense, spherical to ovoid panicles. These are 1-7 cm long and 2 cm wide. They are pale green, more rarely crowded purple, last silvery white. From the single-flowered, up to 10 mm long spikelets 8 to 18 mm long awns of lemmas stand out.

The grass flowers sorted by geographical location between April and June.

Distribution and location

The Samtgras was located originally in the Mediterranean and along the Atlantic coast of Western Europe. It has long been dragged into many other areas congenial climate with him and now spread to all continents. In Central and Northern Europe, it is only impermanent before especially in waste places, roadsides or in sand hallways sometimes at loading areas or in the Barrens. It prefers to grow in non-calcareous grasslands (silicate Magerrasen ) on fine- earth poor, summer warm, dry soils.

Use

The grass is often used for decorative purposes in dry bouquets or grown in gardens as an ornamental plant.