Smooth Meadow-grass - Poa pratensis

Tufted, erect, more or less hairless grass 15 to 80 cm tall, with creeping rhizomes. Stems and leaf sheaths smooth. Panicle spreading, more or less pyramidal, branches 2 to 5 together.

Poa trivialis, other other meadow-grasses

The panicle is clearly branched, with three or more branches at the lowest whorl. Spikelets contain two or more florets without awns. Lemmas easily seen extending beyond glume tips. The ligule is shorter than wide and the lowest sheath is smooth when gently rubbed in either direction against the lips.

Photograph of whole plant in flower, and ligule.  The County Recorder has asked for a specimen of this plant to be retained for verification

Dry grassland, roadside verges and waste places.

May to July.

Perennial.

Very common throughout Britain.

Very common in Leicestershire and Rutland. In the 1979 Flora survey of Leicestershire it was found in 527 of the 617 tetrads.