Appearance
"Anthoxanthum odaoratum" is a short-lived perennial grass that grows in tufts with stems up to 70 cm tall. The leaves are short and broad, 3–5 mm wide, and glabrous to loosely hairy.: 306 It flowers in late spring and early summer, i.e. quite early in the season, with flower spikes of 4–6 centimetres long and crowded spikelets of 6–10 mm, oblong shaped, which can be quite dark when young. The lower lemmas have projecting awns. The ligules are quite long, up to 5 mm, 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.
"Anthoxanthum odoratum" is experiencing parapatric speciation in areas of mine contamination.
Naming
The specific epithet "odoratum" is Latin for 'odorous'.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. It is ubiquitous at the 10 km square level in Britain.References:
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