About Grasses, Sedges And Rushes

Quaking Grass (Briza media)

Grasses dominate the English rural landscape, not just as meadows and pastures, but also as crops which feed man and animal alike. Grasses easily recolonise waste ground and cover waysides and embankments, and mixed meadow-grasses make for a most beautiful summer spectacle.

Common Reed (Phragmites australis)

We all know what grasses are like, they are such a common sight, yet how many of us can  identify a single species? Grasses are plants with long, narrow leaves, rounded hollow stems, with small flowers enclosed in a pair of scales called glumes. These flowers form spikelets, either singly, in pairs or more, enclosed by another pair of scales. Sedges, rushes and reedmaces are also similar to grasses, but have their own characteristics which make them differ so.

Yorkshire Fog (Holcus lanatus)