Botanical name: Anthoxanthum odoratum    Family: Poaceae (Grass family)
Synonyms: Xanthonanthos odoratus, Anthoxanthum villosum

Sweet Vernal Grass is a clustered perennial grass, smelling of Vanilla. Stems are 10-50 cm high, erect. Leaf-blades are 1-12 cm long, 1.5-5 mm wide, hairless to sparsely hairy, finely pointed at the tip; ligule 1-5 mm long. Flower panicles are very dense to somewhat loose, ovate to narrowly oblong, 1-9 cm long, 6-15 mm wide, green or purplish. Spikelets are lanceshaped, the upper awn protruding; glumes thinly membranous, loosely to sparingly hairy; lower glume ovate, 3-5 mm long, 1-nerved, with a short sharp point; upper glume ovate to elliptic, 6-10 mm long, 3-nerved, with a short sharp point; sterile lemmas 3-3.5 mm long, obscurely bibbed, the awn of the upper 6-9 mm long; fertile lemma 2 mm long; anthers 3-4.5 mm long. Sweet Vernal Grass is native to Macaronesia, Europe to Mongolia, NW. Africa. It is naturalized in Western Himalayas.

Your name:
Your email:
Your comments
The flower labeled Sweet Vernal Grass is ...