Avenula pubescens Downy Oat-grass

Avenula pubescens, Downy Oat-grass, is a distinctive perennial grass of calcareous soils. Populations can often be spotted from a distance by the silvery appearance of the massed plants. With its oat-like spikelets bearing long bristles (awns) it can resemble False Oat-grass (Arrhenatherum elatius), but the stems are hairy and do not have the swollen, bulbous base of that species. It is a common component of the limestone grassland on south Gower cliffs and it can form large populations of loosely tufted plants in the grasslands of fixed dunes and roadside verges near the coast.

Native