Wavy hair-grass
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''Deschampsia flexuosa'', commonly known as wavy hair-grass, is a species of
bunchgrass Tussock grasses or bunch grasses are a group of grass species in the family Poaceae. They usually grow as singular plants in clumps, tufts, hummocks, or bunches, rather than forming a sod or lawn, in meadows, grasslands, and prairies. As perenni ...
in the grass family widely distributed in
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 ...
,
Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...
,
South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the sout ...
, and North America.Kew World Checklist of Selected Plant Families
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Description

Wavy hair-grass, ''Deschampsia flexuosa'', has wiry leaves and delicate, shaking
panicles 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 o ...
formed of silvery or purplish-brown flower heads on wavy, hair-like stalks. The leaves are bunched in tight tufts with plants forming a very tussocky, low sward 5 to 20 cm tall before flowering, to 30 cm high. File:Deschampsia flexuosa.jpg, Illustration of ''D. flexuosa'' (including '' D. caespitosa'') File:Avenella flexuosa.jpg, Mature inflorescence


Distribution and habitat

''Deschampsia flexuosa'' is found naturally in dry
grassland A grassland is an area where the vegetation is dominated by grasses ( Poaceae). However, sedge ( Cyperaceae) and rush ( Juncaceae) can also be found along with variable proportions of legumes, like clover, and other herbs. Grasslands occur na ...
s and on
moors The term Moor, derived from the ancient Mauri, is an exonym first used by Christian Europeans to designate the Muslim inhabitants of the Maghreb, the Iberian Peninsula, Sicily and Malta during the Middle Ages. Moors are not a distinct or ...
and
heath A heath () is a shrubland habitat found mainly on free-draining infertile, acidic soils and characterised by open, low-growing woody vegetation. Moorland is generally related to high-ground heaths with—especially in Great Britain—a cooler a ...
s. It is also an important component of the ground flora of birch and oak woodland. The plant has a preference for acidic, free-draining soil, and avoids chalk and limestone areas. It can exist over above sea level.BSBI Description
retrieved 1 December 2010.


See also

*
Woodland and scrub communities in the British National Vegetation Classification system This article gives an overview of the woodland and scrub communities in the British National Vegetation Classification system. Introduction The woodland and scrub communities of the NVC were described in Volume 1 of British Plant Communities, fi ...
—''birch and oak woodland''


References


External links


Sky flora: ''Deschampsia flexuosa''
flexuosa Bunchgrasses of Europe Bunchgrasses of North America Bunchgrasses of South America Bunchgrasses of Africa Butterfly food plants {{Pooideae-stub