''Arrhenatherum'', commonly called oatgrass or button-grass, is a

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 ...

Eurasia Eurasia (, ) is the largest continental area on Earth, comprising all of Europe and Asia. Primarily in the Northern and Eastern Hemispheres, it spans from the British Isles and the Iberian Peninsula in the west to the Japanese archipelago a ...

n and

North Africa North Africa, or Northern Africa is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region, and it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of Mauritania in ...

n plants in the

grass family 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 and ...

Description

Wild forms can resemble wild oat (''Avena'') or

fescue ''Festuca'' (fescue) is a genus of flowering plants belonging to the grass family Poaceae (subfamily Pooideae). They are evergreen or herbaceous perennial tufted grasses with a height range of and a cosmopolitan distribution, occurring on every ...

(''Festuca''). Oatgrasses are very common

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 ...

s with yellowish

root In vascular plants, the roots are the organs of a plant that are modified to provide anchorage for the plant and take in water and nutrients into the plant body, which allows plants to grow taller and faster. They are most often below the sur ...

s. The shining stems grow to a height of 1.5 meters, but die off in winter. The

leaves A leaf (plural, : leaves) is any of the principal appendages of a vascular plant plant stem, stem, usually borne laterally aboveground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", wh ...

are hairless with blunt ligules. The

inflorescence An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Morphologically, it is the modified part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed o ...

is a

panicle 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 panicle are of ...

with two-flowered bisexual spikelets. ; Species * ''

Arrhenatherum album ''Arrhenatherum'', commonly called oatgrass or button-grass, is a genus of Eurasian and North African plants in the grass family. Description Wild forms can resemble wild oat (''Avena'') or fescue (''Festuca''). Oatgrasses are very common pere ...

'' - tall oatgrass - Mediterranean from Portugal to Cyprus * ''

Arrhenatherum calderae ''Arrhenatherum'', commonly called oatgrass or button-grass, is a genus of Eurasian and North African plants in the Poaceae, grass family. Description Wild forms can resemble avena, wild oat (''Avena'') or festuca, fescue (''Festuca''). Oatgrass ...

'' - Tenerife in Canary Islands * ''

Arrhenatherum elatius ''Arrhenatherum elatius'', with the common names bulbous oat grass, false oat-grass, tall oat-grass, tall meadow oat, onion couch and tuber oat-grass, is a species of perennial grass, native to Europe, western Asia, and northern Africa. This bun ...

'' - false oatgrass, tall oatgrass, tall meadow oat - Eurasia + North Africa from Iceland to Canary Islands + Kazakhstan; naturalized in East Asia, Australia, New Zealand, the AmericasRosengurtt, B., B. R. A. Maffei & P. I. Artucio. 1970. Gramíneas Uruguayas –vii 1–489. Universidad de la República, Montevideo * ''

Arrhenatherum kotschyii ''Arrhenatherum'', commonly called oatgrass or button-grass, is a genus of Eurasian and North African plants in the grass family. Description Wild forms can resemble wild oat (''Avena'') or fescue (''Festuca''). Oatgrasses are very common pere ...

'' - Turkey, Caucasus, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Jordan, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan * ''

Arrhenatherum longifolium ''Arrhenatherum'', commonly called oatgrass or button-grass, is a genus of Eurasian and North African plants in the grass family. Description Wild forms can resemble wild oat (''Avena'') or fescue (''Festuca''). Oatgrasses are very common pere ...

'' - France, Spain, Portugal, Morocco * '' Arrhennatherum palaestinum'' - eastern Mediterranean from Greece to Iraq * ''

Arrhenatherum pallens ''Arrhenatherum'', commonly called oatgrass or button-grass, is a genus of Eurasian and North African plants in the grass family. Description Wild forms can resemble wild oat (''Avena'') or fescue (''Festuca''). Oatgrasses are very common pere ...

'' - Portugal ; formerly included numerous species now considered better suited to other genera: ''

Avenula ''Avenula'' is a genus of Eurasian flowering plants in the grass family. Over 100 names have been proposed for species, subspecies, varieties, and other infraspecific taxa within ''Avenula'', but only one species is accepted. The others names are ...

Danthoniastrum ''Danthoniastrum'' is a genus of Balkan and Caucasian plants in the grass family. ; Species * '' Danthoniastrum brevidentatum'' H.Scholz - Kosovo, Albania * '' Danthoniastrum compactum'' (Boiss. & Heldr.) Holub - Greece * '' Danthoniastrum ko ...

Duthiea ''Duthiea'' is a genus of Asian plants in the grass family. ; Species * '' Duthiea brachypodium'' (P.Candargy) Keng & Keng f. - Qinghai, Sichuan, Tibet, Yunnan, Bhutan, Nepal, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh * '' Duthiea bromoides'' Hack. - Jammu & ...

Helictochloa ''Helictochloa'' is a genus of Eurasian, North African, and North American plants in the grass family. ; Species See also * List of Poaceae genera The true grasses ( Poaceae) are one of the largest plant families, with around 12,000 spec ...

Helictotrichon ''Helictotrichon'', or alpine oatgrass, is a genus of perennial flowering plants in the grass family. The genus name comes from the Greek ''heliktos'' meaning twisted, and ''trichos'' meaning hair, referring to the shape of the awn. Most of the ...

Sphenopholis ''Sphenopholis'' is a genus of North American and Hawaiian plants in the grass family. They are known generally as wedgescales. ; Species * '' Sphenopholis filiformis'' - longleaf wedgescale - TX OK AR LA TN MS AL GA FL NC SC VA ...

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q157689 Pooideae Poaceae genera Taxa named by Palisot de Beauvois