''Anthoxanthum aristatum'' is a species of

grass 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 ...

known by the common names awned vernalgrass or annual vernalgrass. It is native to North Africa and southern and western Europe as far north as the Netherlands, and it is known in other regions, including northern Europe and North America, as an

introduced species An introduced species, alien species, exotic species, adventive species, immigrant species, foreign species, non-indigenous species, or non-native species is a species living outside its native distributional range, but which has arrived there ...

. It is occasionally a minor

weed A weed is a plant considered undesirable in a particular situation, "a plant in the wrong place", or a plant growing where it is not wanted.Harlan, J. R., & deWet, J. M. (1965). Some thoughts about weeds. ''Economic botany'', ''19''(1), 16-24. ...

of fields. This is an annual grass growing in small tufts up to about 30 centimeters tall. The leaves are short, pointed, and somewhat hairy. 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 up to 3 centimeters long and one wide, flat and hairy with spikelets a few millimeters long.

References

Jepson Manual TreatmentUSDA Plants ProfileAnnual Vernalgrass in the UK
* Pooideae Flora of Africa Flora of Europe Plants described in 1839 Taxa named by Pierre Edmond Boissier {{Pooideae-stub