As the left-hand picture shows, it is virtually impossible to photograph individual grass flowers where they are growing: their shapes simply don't stand out against the background of their mates.  So instead individual flower heads are shown resting on a sheet of squared paper: the 'big' squares are centimetres, the smallest ones millimetres.

With every type of grass the flowerhead emerges from a tubular sheath so it first appears as a compact, thin upright as in the middle picture.  But many then open out like miniature Christmas trees or weeping willows.  This particular grass, photographed in June, is -
YORKSHIRE  FOG
Holcus lanatus
It is an unusually soft and minutely hairy species, and so is not particularly liked by livestock: that may be why it tends to form clumps like that in the first picture.  Some specimens may be almost mauve in colour.


So grass flowerhead identification is possible only when fully emerged.  Size depends on circumstances: a grass reaching up to the light on the edge of a wood may be five or more feet tall while its compatriot on a well-trodden or grazed area may manage only a few inches.  Again, colours are variable, with many different greens, browns and reds in vogue.  All grasses are both male pollen-producers and female seed-producers: shape and colour can change depending on whether or not the pollen sacs - 'anthers' - are on display as with the close-up of cocksfoot grass in the picture on the right.  So the one and only way to recognise grasses is by the patterns of their structures.

GRASSES  PHOTOGRAPHED  IN  MAY

• 1: ANNUAL  MEADOW  GRASS, Poa annua, is an extremely versatile self-seeding annual grass (reputed to be the one and only invading plant established on Antarctica).  It is comparatively small but can be found in flower in every month of the year.
• 2: COCKSFOOT, Dactylis glomerata, is a useful, drought-resistant grass though it tends to form heavy clumps which become tough and unpalatable.
• 3: MEADOW  FOXTAIL, Alopecurus pratensis, is one of the first grass flowers to emerge in the early summer.  The specimen on the left has its pollen sacs deployed so that the wind can carry pollen to neighbouring plants.  There is also some variation in sizes.
• 4: PERENNIAL  RYEGRASS, Lolium perenne, is a grass among grasses!  It is an ideal grazing companion with white clover; is the hard-wearing grass for 'natural' sports turf; and is what you get if you ask for a versatile family lawn.
• 5: SOFT  BROME, Bromus mollis, is a common wild annual grass of grasslands, verges and so on.
• 6: BARREN  BROME, Bromus sterilis, is an annual grass that is barren in name only.  When fully emerged those branches hang down, very decoratively.
• 7: SWEET  VERNAL, Anthoxanthum odoratum, usually wins the early race: "vernal" actally means "of the springtime" (as in "vernal equinox").  Farmers and their charges welcome it: though not very productive it makes for "sweet"-smelling hay crops.

GRASSES  PHOTOGRAPHED  IN  JUNE

• 8: BARLEY  GRASS, Hordeum murinum (possibly H. pratense) is not very productive, but has been known to provide small boys with ammunition darts.
• 9: COMMON  BENT, Agrostis vulgaris, as common as its name implies, especially in fairly dry grasslands and wild spaces.  The most delicate-looking, airy-fairy grass flowerheads.
• 10: COUCH or TWITCH, Agropyron repens, the old-time gardeners' dreaded weed which spreads by underground stems.  But as it can't stand being grazed, it occurs on horse pastures only round the edges.
• 4 & 10 : For comparison, valuable perennial ryegrass on the left has its florets edge-on to its stems, but couch/twitch on the right has its florets pressed flat-ways against the stem.
• 11: CRESTED  DOGSTAIL, Cynosurus cristatus, has all its florets on one side of the stem, like a toothbrush.  Very compact when it first emerges from its leaf sheath, it opens up to distribute and receive pollen.

GRASSES  PHOTOGRAPHED  IN  JUNE-JULY

• 12: MEADOW  FESCUE, Festuca pratensis, a common and agriculturally useful grass.  Its florets are in compact, pointed groups, not hairy.
• 13: TALL  OAT  GRASS, Arrhenatherum elatius, makes a tall summer show on any of the field areas that haven't been heavily grazed. The florets have awns - stiff whiskers.
• 14: YELLOW/GOLDEN  OAT  GRASS, Trisetum flavescens, is slightly smaller and more 'golden' than the tall oat grass.  (It is totally unrelated to the Stipa gigantea sold as 'golden oat grass' in some garden centres.)
• 15 and 16: These two common wayside and field grasses are very similar.  The only non-technical way of telling them apart is that if you gently rub the flower stem on your lips the ROUGH  STALKED  MEADOW  GRASS, 15, Poa trivialis, feels very slightly rough whereas the flower stalk of SMOOTH  STALKED  MEADOW  GRASS, 16, Poa pratensis, feels as if it had been varnished.
• 17: WOOD FALSE BROME GRASS, Brachypodium sylvaticum, has the sole skill of being able to thrive in the shade, so it is to be found only beneath the trees along the one-time towpath.
• 18: TIMOTHY, Phleum pratense, may look like a stiffer, less hairy version of meadow foxtail (3 above) but whereas meadow foxtail is one of the earliest spring grasses timothy is one of the last summer ones: they virtually never appear side by side.