Sea Fern-grass - Catapodium marinum

Description

A short (5 to 20 cm), stiff, hairless plant. It has stout, flattened, shiny inflorescence stalks and more or less stalkless, flat spikelets 4 to 9 mm long alternately arranged along both sides of the main inflorescence spike.

Identification difficulty
Recording advice

Either obtain confirmation from a County Recorder before submitting a record, or submit detailed images showing key features.  We recommend that you take and retain a specimen; the County Recorder may wish to see this for confirmation. 

When to see it

Flowers June and July.

Life History

Annual.

UK Status

Mainly coastal in Britain, but with occasional records of the species occurring inland.

VC55 Status

Rare in Leicestershire and Rutland.

It was not recorded in the Flora of Leicestershire (Primavesi & Evans, 1988)

In the most recent VC55 checklist (Jeeves 2011) it is listed as 'Alien (Neophyte) - Rare', with the first record in Groby, 2004

Leicestershire & Rutland Map

MAP KEY:

Yellow squares = NBN records (all known data)
Coloured circles = NatureSpot records: 2020+ | 2015-2019 | pre-2015

UK Map

Species profile

Common names
Sea Fern-grass, Darnel Fescue
Species group:
Grasses, Rushes & Sedges
Kingdom:
Plantae
Order:
Poales
Family:
Poaceae
Records on NatureSpot:
2
First record:
13/07/2016 (Diane Mattley)
Last record:
04/06/2022 (Smith, Peter)

Total records by month

% of records within its species group

10km squares with records

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