Sand Cat's Tail

Sand cat’s-tail grows in dune sand, which is usually rich in calcium. You can find this grass not just in the dunes by sea, but also along river dunes and wherever dune sand has been transferred to, such as industrial areas. It is a lovely grass when it flowers in the spring, closely resembling miniature cat tails with its plumy inflorescence. In the Netherlands, sand cat’s tail is common in the dunes along the coast and quite rare along the rivers. Although the plant is an annual, you find dried up tufts from the previous year still in the ground up the following spring.

Phleum arenarium L. Sp. PI. 60. 1753
Annual ; culms branched and erect or geniculate at base, glabrous, slender, often purplish above, 3-30 cm. tall; sheaths glabrous, the upper more or less inflated; ligule acutish, as much as 3 mm. long; blades 1.5-3 cm. long, as much as 4 mm. wide, acuminate, scabrous on the upper surface, the uppermost small or wanting; panicles 1.5-3 cm. long, 8 mm. wide, narrowed toward the tip; glumes about 3 mm. long, pointed, the keels strongly ciliate; lemma about one third as long as the glumes, appressed-pubescent.
Type locality: Europe.
Distribution: Ballast near Portland, Oregon; coast of Europe and North Africa.

Annuals, Terrestrial, not aquatic, Stems nodes swollen or brittle, Stems erect or ascending, Stems geniculate, decumbent, or lax, sometimes rooting at nodes, Stems solitary, Stems caespitose, tufted, or clustered, Stems terete, round in cross section, or polygonal, Stem internodes hollow, Stems with inflorescence less than 1 m tall, Stems, culms, or scapes exceeding basal leaves, Leaves mostly cauline, Leaves conspicuously 2-ranked, distichous, Leaves sheathing at base, Leaf sheath mostly open, or loose, Leaf sheath smooth, glabrous, Leaf sheath and blade differentiated, Leaf sheath enlarged, inflated or distended, Leaf blades linear, Leaf blades very narrow or filiform, less than 2 mm wide, Leaf blades 2-10 mm wide, Leaf blades mostly flat, Leaf blades mostly glabrous, Leaf blades scabrous, roughened, or wrinkled, Ligule present, Ligule an unfringed eciliate membrane, Inflorescence terminal, Inflorescence simple spikes, Inflorescence a dense slender spike-like panicle or raceme, branches contracted, Inflorescence solitary, with 1 spike, fascicle, glomerule, head, or cluster per stem or culm, Inflorescence spike linear or cylindric, several times longer than wide, Inflorescence spike ovoid, lanceolate, or oblong, not more than twice as long as wide, Inflorescence single raceme, fascicle or spike, Inflorescence branches more than 10 to numerous, Flowers bisexual, Spikelets pedicellate, Spikelets laterally compressed, Spikelet less than 3 mm wide, Spikelets with 1 fertile floret, Spikelets solitary at rachis nodes, Spikelets all alike and fertille, Spikelets bisexual, Spikelets disarticulating above the glumes, glumes persistent, Rachilla or pedicel glabrous, Glumes present, empty bracts, Glumes 2 clearly present, Glumes equal or subequal, Glumes equa l to or longer than adjacent lemma, Glumes awned, awn 1-5 mm or longer, Glumes keeled or winged, Glumes 3 nerved, Lemmas thin, chartaceous, hyaline, cartilaginous, or membranous, Lemma 5-7 nerved, Lemma 8-15 nerved, Lemma glabrous, Lemma body or surface hairy, Lemma apex truncate, rounded, or obtuse, Lemma awnless, Lemma margins thin, lying flat, Lemma straight, Palea present, well developed, Palea membranous, hyaline, Palea about equal to lemma, Stamens 3, Styles 2-fid, deeply 2-branched, Stigmas 2, Fruit - caryopsis, Caryopsis ellipsoid, longitudinally grooved, hilum long-linear.