Anthoxanthum odoratum
{{Short description|Species of grass}}
{{Other uses|Buffalo grass (disambiguation){{!}}Buffalo grass}}
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|image = AnthoxanthumOdoratum.jpg
|genus = Anthoxanthum
|species = odoratum
|authority = L.
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Anthoxanthum odoratum is a short-lived perennial grass, commonly known as sweet vernal grass, that is native to acidic grassland in Eurasia and northern Africa.{{cite web |title=Anthoxanthum odoratum |url=https://www.brc.ac.uk/plantatlas/plant/anthoxanthum-odoratum |website=Online Atlas of the British and Irish flora |access-date=2 April 2021}} It is grown as a lawn grass and a house plant, due to its sweet scent, and can also be found on unimproved pastures and meadows. The specific epithet {{lang|la|odoratum}} is Latin for 'odorous'.
Description
Anthoxanthum odaoratum is a short-lived perennial grass that grows in tufts with stems up to {{Convert|70|cm|in|abbr=on}} tall. The leaves are short and broad, {{Convert|3|–|5|mm|in|abbr=on}} wide, and glabrous to loosely hairy.{{cite book |date=2009 |first1=Tom |last1=Cope |first2=Alan |last2=Gray |title=Grasses of the British Isles, BSBI Handbook N0. 13 |publisher=Botanical Society of the British Isles (now Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland) |location=London |isbn=978-0-901158-420 }}{{rp|306}} It flowers in late spring and early summer, i.e. quite early in the season, with flower spikes of {{Convert|4|–|6|cm|in}} long and crowded spikelets of {{Convert|6|–|10|mm|in|abbr=on}}, oblong shaped, which can be quite dark when young. The lower lemmas have projecting awns. The ligules are quite long, up to {{convert|5|mm|abbr=on}}, blunt, with hairy fringes around the side.
The scent is particularly strong when dried, and is due to coumarin, a glycoside, and benzoic acid – it smells like fresh hay with a hint of vanilla. The seed head is bright yellow in color.[http://www.bsbi.org.uk/identification.html BSBI Description] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110717004923/http://www.bsbi.org.uk/identification.html |date=2011-07-17 }} retrieved 10 December 2010.
Anthoxanthum odoratum is experiencing parapatric speciation in areas of mine contamination.{{cite web |title=Parapatric speciation |url=http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/article/_0/speciationmodes_04 |publisher=University of California Berkeley |access-date=3 April 2017}}{{Citation |title=Evolution in closely adjacent plant populations X: long-term persistence of prereproductive isolation at a mine boundary|author=Janis Antonovics|journal=Heredity|year=2006|volume=97|issue=1|pages=33–37|doi=10.1038/sj.hdy.6800835 |pmid=16639420|s2cid=12291411}}
Distribution
Anthoxanthum odoratum is native to Europe and temperate parts of Asia, but is widely introduced and naturalised so that distribution is now Circumpolar Wide-temperate.{{cite web |url=https://www.brc.ac.uk/plantatlas/plant/anthoxanthum-odoratum|work=Online atlas of the British and Irish flora |title=Anthoxanthum odoratum |publisher=Biological Records Centre and Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland |access-date=9 October 2021 }} It is ubiquitous at the 10 km square level in Britain.
Cultivation
It is grown by scattering seed on tilled ground in the spring through fall, germinating in 4 to 5 days. It prefers sandy loam and acidic conditions (a low pH). As an agricultural grass it has a low yield, but can grow on land too acidic for other grasses.
Gallery
Image:Anthoxanthum odoratum.jpg
Image:Anthoxanthum odoratum (Billeder af nordens flora 1917ff., v2 0427) clean, no-description.jpg
Image:Illustration_Anthoxanthum_odoratum0.jpg
Image:AnthoxanthumOdoratum.jpg
Image:anthoxanthum_odoratum_aehrchen_detail.jpeg
Image:anthoxanthum_odoratum_aehre.jpeg
Image:anthoxanthum_odoratum_scheidenhaare.jpeg
Image:anthoxanthum_odoratum_blatt.jpeg
Image:Anthoxanthum.odoratum.jpg
Image:Anthoxanthum.odoratum.2.jpg
Image:Anthoxanthum.odoratum.3.jpg
References
Further reading
- {{cite book|author=Pink, A.|url=https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/11892|title=Gardening for the Million|year=2004|publisher=Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation}}
External links
{{NIE Poster|Vernal Grass}}
- [http://www.plant-identification.co.uk/skye/gramineae/anthoxanthum-odoratum.htm Skye Flora] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111104162014/http://www.plant-identification.co.uk/skye/gramineae/anthoxanthum-odoratum.htm |date=2011-11-04 }}
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