''Briza media'' is a

perennial A perennial plant or simply perennial is a plant that lives more than two years. The term ('' per-'' + '' -ennial'', "through the years") is often used to differentiate a plant from shorter-lived annuals and biennials. The term is also wide ...

grass in the family

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

and is a species of the

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

Briza ''Briza'' is a genus of annual and perennial plants in the grass family, native to northern temperate regions of Eurasia, North Africa, and certain islands in the Atlantic. The group is generally referred to as the quaking grasses because the ...

''. Common name includes quaking-grass, common quaking grass, cow-quake, didder, dithering-grass, dodder-grass, doddering dillies, doddle-grass, earthquakes, jiggle-joggles, jockey-grass, lady's-hair, maidenhair-grass, pearl grass, quakers, quakers-and-shakers, shaking-grass, tottergrass, wag-wantons

Description

Grows to 40cm and flowers June to September in the UK. Characterised by fine stems and

hops Hops are the flowers (also called seed cones or strobiles) of the hop plant ''Humulus lupulus'', a member of the Cannabaceae family of flowering plants. They are used primarily as a bittering, flavouring, and stability agent in beer, to whi ...

-shaped green and purple spikelets. Distinguished from the closely related

Briza maxima ''Briza maxima'' is a species of the grass genus ''Briza''. It is native to Northern Africa, Western Asia and Southern Europe and is cultivated or naturalised in the British Isles, the Azores, Australasia, the western United States, Central and S ...

by the size of the flower spikelets.

Distribution and habitat

This grass species is common in England and Wales It grows in dry calcareous grassland.NaureSpot - Quaking Grass
/ref> Its seeds are consumed by many farmland birds. Briza media - keskmine värihein.jpg, Keila, Estonia PNBT Briza media wiecha 03.07.10 pl.jpg, Bory Tucholskie National Park, Poland

References

* Pooideae Grasses of Europe Plants described in 1753 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus {{Pooideae-stub