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Holcus lanatus

(Common Velvet Grass)

Interesting Facts

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Common Names

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Click on the language to view common names.

Common Names in English:

Common Velvet Grass, Common Velvetgrass, Soft Meadow Grass, Velvet Grass, Velvetgrass, Woolly Soft Grass, Yorkshire Fog, Yorkshire-Fog

Common Names in French:

Holoque Laineuse, Houlque Velue

Common Names in German:

Wolliges Honiggras

Common Names in Italian:

Bambagione, Fieno Bianco

Common Names in Portuguese:

Erva-Lanar

Common Names in Russian:

Bucharnik Serstistyj, буцхарник серстистый

Common Names in Spanish:

Heno Blanco, Pasto Lanudo

Common Names in Swedish:

Luddtåtel

Description

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Family Poaceae

Annual or perennial herbs, or tall woody bamboos . Flowering stems (culms ) jointed , internodes hollow or solid; branches arising singly from nodes and subtended by a leaf sheath and 2-keeled prophyll, often fascicled in bamboos. Leaves arranged alternately in 2 ranks , differentiated into sheath, blade , and an adaxial erect appendage at sheath/blade junction (ligule) ; leaf sheath surrounding and supporting culm-internode, split to base or infrequently tubular with partially or completely fused margins , modified with reduced blade in bamboos (culm sheaths) ; leaf blades divergent, usually long, narrow and flat, but varying from inrolled and filiform to ovate , veins parallel, sometimes with cross-connecting veinlets (especially in bamboos) ; ligule membranous or a line of hairs . Inflorescence terminal or axillary , an open, contracted , or spikelike panicle, or composed of lax to spikelike racemes arranged along an elongate central axis, or digitate, paired , or occasionally solitary; axillary inflorescences often many, subtended by spatheoles (specialized bladeless leaf sheaths) and gathered into a leafy compound panicle; spikelets often aggregated into complex clusters in bamboos. Spikelets composed of distichous bracts arranged along a slender axis (rachilla) ; typically 2 lowest bracts (glumes ) empty, subtending 1 to many florets ; glumes often poorly differentiated from accompanying bracts in bamboos. Florets composed of 2 opposing bracts enclosing a single small flower, outer bract (lemma) clasping the more delicate, usually 2-keeled inner bract (palea) ; base of floret often with thickened prolongation articulated with rachilla (callus) ; lemma often with apical or dorsal bristle (awn ), glumes also sometimes awned . Flowers bisexual or unisexual ; lodicules (small scales representing perianth) 2, rarely 3 or absent, 3 to many in bamboos, hyaline or fleshy ; stamens 3 rarely 1, 2, 6, or more in some bamboos, hypogynous, filaments capillary , anthers versatile; ovary 1-celled, styles (1 or) 2(rarely 3), free or united at base, topped by feathery stigmas, exserted from sides or apex of floret. Fruit normally a dry indehiscent caryopsis with thin pericarp firmly adherent to seed, pericarp rarely free, fleshy in some bamboos; embryo small or large; hilum punctate to linear .

About 700 genera and 11,000 species: widely distributed in all regions of the world.[1]

Genus Holcus

Annuals or perennials . Leaf blades flat. Inflorescence a moderately to densely contracted panicle. Spikelets laterally compressed , disarticulating below glumes , florets 2, lower floret bisexual , upper floret staminate; rachilla usually curved and hooked below bisexual floret, often shortly extended above staminate floret; glumes subequal , papery , enclosing florets, strongly keeled , lower glume 1-veined, upper glume 3-veined; lemmas cartilaginous , shiny, rounded on back, veins indistinct, apex obtuse or 2-toothed, upper lemma or both awned ; awn arising from upper 1/3 of lemma back, geniculate , hooked or straight; palea slightly shorter than lemma, membranous.

Eight species: N Africa, SW Asia, Europe; one species (introduced ) in China.[2]

Physical Description

Species Holcus lanatus

Perennial , softly hairy . Culms tufted , erect or geniculate at base , 30-80 cm tall, pubescent , 4-5-noded. Leaf sheaths loose , tomentose with reflexed hairs ; leaf blades flat, 6-18 cm, 3-9 mm wide, soft, both surfaces pubescent, apex acute; ligule 2-3 mm, truncate or toothed . Panicle lanceolate to oblong or ovate in outline, rather loose to very dense, 3-12 cm; branches narrowly ascending , pubescent. Spikelets oblong or gaping , 3.5-6 mm, pale grayish green or purplish; glumes lanceolate, keel and veins hispidulous , surface scabrid or puberulent to villous , lower glume apex acute, upper glume wider and sometimes slightly longer than lower glume, apex mucronate ; florets subequal , 2-2.5 mm; rachilla ca. 0.5 mm; lower lemma awnless, anthers 1.8-2 mm; upper lemma with hooked 1-2 mm awn , anthers ca. 1.5 mm. Fl. and fr. May-Oct. [source]

Habit: Graminoid

Flowers: Bloom Period: April, May. • Flower Color: lavender, pale green, violet

Size/Age/Growth

Size: 12-18" tall.

Habitat

Open ground , meadows, moist places; an adventive occasionally cultivated as a meadow grass .[3].

Biology

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Reproduction

Duration: Perennial

Growth

Sunlight: Sun Exposure: Full Sun .

Taxonomy

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Unambiguous Synonyms

  1. Aira holcus-lanatus (L.) Vill.
  2. Avena lanata (L.) Cav.
  3. Avena lanata (L.) Koeler
  4. Avena lanata (Linnaeus) Koeler
  5. Ginannia lanata (L.) F. T. Hubb.
  6. Nothoholcus lanatus (L.) Nash
  7. Notholcus lanatus (Linnaeus) Nash Ex Hitchcock.

Notes

Name Status: Accepted Name . Latest taxonomic scrutiny: 15-Mar-2000

Place of publication : Sp. pl. 2:1048. 1753

Name verified on 08-May-1992 by ARS Systematic Botanists. Last updated: 20-Nov-2007

Similar Species

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Members of the genus Holcus

ZipcodeZoo has pages for 108 species, subspecies, varieties, forms, and cultivars in this genus. Here are just 100 of them:

H. acicularis · H. aciculatus · H. aestivalis · H. 'Alan Cook' · H. albus · H. alpinus · H. annus · H. annuus · H. arcticus · H. arduini · H. arenarius · H. argenteus · H. asper · H. atropurpureus · H. australis · H. avenaceus · H. biaristatus · H. bicolor · H. blanichii · H. borealis · H. bulbosa · H. caerulescens · H. caespitosus · H. cafer · H. caffrorum · H. capillaris · H. carar · H. cernuus · H. ciliatus · H. compactus · H. cylindricus · H. decolorans · H. densus · H. distachyos · H. dochna · H. dora · H. duna · H. durieui · H. durra · H. effusus · H. elatior · H. elongatus · H. exiguus · H. fauriei · H. ferrugineus · H. fragrans · H. fulvus · H. gayanus · H. glaucus · H. grandiflorus · H. gryllus · H. halapensis · H. halepensis · H. hybridus · H. lanatus (Common Velvet Grass) · H. lanatus 'Albovariegatus' · H. lanatus var. soboliferus · H. lappaceus · H. latifolius · H. laxus · H. mollis (Creeping Velvet Grass) · H. mollis 'Albovariegatus' (Creeping Velvet Grass) · H. mollis 'Jackdaw's Cream' · H. mollis 'Variegatus' · H. mollis 'White Fog' · H. montanus · H. monticola · H. muticus · H. natans · H. nervosus · H. niger · H. nigerrimus · H. nitidus · H. notarisii · H. nutans · H. odoratus · H. oriolis · H. pallidus · H. parviflorus · H. pertusus · H. plumosus · H. racemosus · H. redolens · H. repens · H. reuteri · H. rigidus · H. rubens · H. saccharatus · H. saccharoides · H. savii · H. serratus · H. setifolius · H. setiger · H. setiglumis · H. setiglumis duriensis · H. setosus · H. sorghum · H. sorghum var. sudanensis · H. spicatus · H. striatus

More Info

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Further Reading

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Notes

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Contributors

Data Sources

Accessed through GBIF Data Portal November 14, 2007:

Identifiers

Footnotes

  1. Shou-liang Chen, De-Zhu Li, Guanghua Zhu, Zhenlan Wu, Sheng-lian Lu, Liang Liu, Zheng-ping Wang, Bi-xing Sun, Zheng-de Zhu, Nianhe Xia, Liang-zhi Jia, Zhenhua Guo, Wenli Chen, Xiang Chen, Yang Guangyao, Sylvia M. Phillips, Chris Stapleton, Robert J. Soreng, Susan G. Aiken, Nikolai N. Tzvelev, Paul M. Peterson, Stephen A. Renvoize, Marina V. Olonova & Klaus Ammann "Poaceae". in Flora of China Vol. 22. Published by Science Press (Beijing) and Missouri Botanical Garden Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]
  2. Zhen-lan Wu & Sylvia M. Phillips "Holcus". in Flora of China Vol. 22 Page 316, 334. Published by Science Press (Beijing) and Missouri Botanical Garden Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]
  3. "Holcus lanatus". in Flora of China Vol. 22 Page 334. Missouri Botanical Garden Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]
Last Revised: 7/1/2009