Plant. Photo: RJ Soreng, Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of Natural History, Department of Botany, photo taken in Arizona, USA

Seed heads. Photo: JC Schou, Denmark

Line drawing in Hitchcock, A.S. (rev. A. Chase). 1950. Manual of the grasses of the United States

Common Name

Squirrel Tail Fescue, Silver Grass, Hair Grass, Rat's Tail Fescue, Silk Grass

Family

Poaceae

Notes

Introduced annual grass to 60cm tall or sprawling.  Leaves with a hairless sheath at the base.  Ligule a membrane without a fringe of hairs.  Leaves 1-18cm long, 0.5-3mm wide, flat, rolled, or rolled inwards, hairy on the upper surface, lower surface hairless, rough on the edges and near the tip, with a long drawn-out point.  Flower heads green or purplish.  Spikelets 6-14mm long excluding the awns.  Mature seed groups cylindrical or oval to spreading. Seeds with 1 awn, in groups of 3-10.

Description and line drawing in GM Cunningham, WE Mulham, PL Milthorpe and J H Leigh (1981 and later printings) Plants of Western New South Wales page 153

PlantNET description:  http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Vulpia~bromoides

ausgrass2 description with line drawings and photos:   http://ausgrass2.myspecies.info/content/vulpia-bromoides

Weeds of Australia Biosecurity Queensland Edition description:  http://keyserver.lucidcentral.org/weeds/data/03030800-0b07-490a-8d04-0605030c0f01/media/Html/Vulpia_bromoides.htm