Black Bent
Scientific name: Agrostis gigantea
Family: Poaceae
Other common names;
Flowering time: June to August
Height: 30cm to 1.2m
Growing conditions: light sandy and gravely soils
Nectar source for:
Food source for:
Description
Black bent is a perennial grass and can grow vegetatively from broken fragments of rhizome or from seed. It produces more seed than common couch and most seed germinates in the first autumn after shedding if it remains on the soil surface. Even a thin layer of soil will enforce dormancy and once covered the seed will survive for at least 2 to 3 years.
How to identify: Leaves are dull, green and hairless. Sheaths are rounded and smooth. Panicles are erect, oblong and usually open. Distinguished from common couch by long serrated ligule and lack of auricles. Flower head has large, open panicle, often oval and green or frequently purplish in colour. Spikelets are small, narrow, single flowered and awnless.
How to propagate: Black bent is spread by both seed and stolons. Stems root easily at every node.
Family: Poaceae
Other common names;
Flowering time: June to August
Height: 30cm to 1.2m
Growing conditions: light sandy and gravely soils
Nectar source for:
Food source for:
Description
Black bent is a perennial grass and can grow vegetatively from broken fragments of rhizome or from seed. It produces more seed than common couch and most seed germinates in the first autumn after shedding if it remains on the soil surface. Even a thin layer of soil will enforce dormancy and once covered the seed will survive for at least 2 to 3 years.
How to identify: Leaves are dull, green and hairless. Sheaths are rounded and smooth. Panicles are erect, oblong and usually open. Distinguished from common couch by long serrated ligule and lack of auricles. Flower head has large, open panicle, often oval and green or frequently purplish in colour. Spikelets are small, narrow, single flowered and awnless.
How to propagate: Black bent is spread by both seed and stolons. Stems root easily at every node.