Although the flowers of grasses are generally wanting in attractive colours, the clusters of blossoms are often very graceful and pretty, especially when the large anthers, covered with bright-yellow pollen, dangle in the breeze.
We will now briefly describe the principal British grasses that grow chiefly or exclusively in the immediate neighbourhood of the sea.
The Sea Hard Grass (Lepturus filiformis) is a perennial species, usually about six inches in height, very common on some sandy coasts, and found in flower during the hottest months of the summer. The flowers are arranged in simple spikes, on slender erect stems; and the glumes, which are united at their bases, enclose a single bloom.
In similar situations we may find the Sea Lyme Grass (Elymus arenarius), a tall species, often reaching a height of four feet, with glaucous rigid leaves. The flowers are arranged in a simple spike, but the spikelets are clustered two or three together. This species flowers in August.
Of the well-known Barley Grasses there is one species (Hordeum maritimum) that has its habitat along the coast. Like the others of its genus, the spikelets are arranged in threes, each bearing a single flower, and the pales have long slender processes (awns) which constitute the so-called beard. It also resembles the common Meadow Barley Grass in having the middle flower of each three perfect, while the two laterals are abortive, but may be distinguished by its rough and bristly glumes, and the semi-oval form of the pales of the lateral flowers. It is a somewhat stunted species, sometimes only five or six inches in height, and may be found in flower about Midsummer.
The Brome Grasses have also a representative of a sea-loving nature, which is to be found in fields near the cliffs. It is the Field Brome Grass (Bromus arvensis), an annual grass that grows to a height of two or three feet. Brome grasses generally are known by their loose panicles of flowers, lanceolate and compressed spikelets, and awned florets enclosed in unequal glumes; and B. arvensis may be distinguished by its hairy leaves and stem-sheath, and the drooping panicle with the lower peduncle branched.
Fig. 278.—The Sea Lyme Grass
Among the Meadow Grasses we have three or four coast species. In these the florets are in panicles and are not awned. The outer glumes are keeled and traversed by several veins; and the lower pales are also keeled, with five or more nerves. The Sea Meadow Grass (Poa maritima) grows in salt marshes near the sea, its erect rigid panicles reaching a height of about eight or ten inches. It has a creeping root, and its leaves are curved inward at the margins. The Procumbent Meadow Grass (P. procumbens) and a variety of the Reflexed Meadow Grass (P. distans) are also plentiful in salt marshes. The former may be known by the short rigid branches of its panicle and the five ribs of the lower pales; and the latter is much like P. maritima, but grows taller, and its spikelets are crowded. The Wheat Meadow Grass (P. loliacea) grows on sandy shores. Its spikelets are arranged singly and alternately along the central axis, and the upper glume reaches to the base of the fourth floret. This species flowers in June, but the other three of the same genus bloom from July to September.