Plant Guide > Grasses > Wood Meadow Grass

Wood Meadow Grass

WOOD MEADOW GRASS (Poa nemoralis L.)

Botanical description:

Wood Meadow Grass is perennial, with a short rootstock, and grows in loose tufts. The tufts consist chiefly of flower-bearing stems, sterile, leafy shoots being developed late in the season, usually after the seed is ripe. The stems are more slender than in the other species of Poa herein described, and the stem leaves are much longer.

The leaves are very narrow, usually about as broad as the stem, and their ligule is extremely short or even wanting. The panicle is thin, oblong to egg-shaped when in bloom, but later contracted and narrow. The spikelets are onecoloured, generally green to bright brownish. They contain one to five flowers.

Geographical distribution:

Wood Meadow Grass is indigenous to Europe and temperate Asia and is claimed to be a native of Canada. This, however, is doubtful, the Canadian plants generally named Poa nemoralis being widely different from the true European type. Thus, the Canadian Poa nemoralis is found in meadows, along borders of woods, and even on the open prairie. The true Wood Meadow Grass occurs in woods and will not thrive in exposed places, at least not on open prairies. It is especially common in beech woods, where the shade is heavy, or under other deciduous trees.

Agricultural value:

Wood Meadow Grass, being a resident of shady localities, is evidently of no agricultural value, either for hay or pasture, except in shady parks and open woodlands where forage is required. It can be used to great advantage for lawns under trees.

Wood Meadow Grass seed