Hi Kate

Thanks for your kind comments and glad to be of help. I always thought the bristle, or awn, was attached to the glume, but perhaps it is considered a separate structure. Sorry not to be more use! Thanks for asking.

Hi there,

Thank you for writing this :)) I am a horticulture student and this page has really helped me. Especially the break down of the inflorescence and flower structure.

I had a question regarding the individual spikelet diagram, is the bristle part of the floret within the glumes or a separate structure?

Thank you again 🙂

Hi Ken

What an interesting project, and yes, this is certainly something I’d be able to help with. Please email me on info@lizzieharper.co.uk and let me know which grass species you are interested in using. Thank you for your lovely comments about my work, too.

Ah, I may be able to draw grasses, but Im sure you know an enormous amo0unt more about them than I do! So I am jealous of your knowledge. Yours Lizzie

Hooray for you, Julie! Sedges are even trickier than grasses, I think, so that’s wonderful to hear.

Hi Paul

Not easy, is it? Especially when some books and sources say one thing, and others may not agree. For dissecting grass florets, a dissecting microscope is a big help. I also use tiny tailor’s scissors, a needle to separate the florets from one another, and a razor blade or scalpel to cut individual florets off the main inflorescence. A trick I use sometimes that might be of use is to do your dissecting on a bit of masking tape. You can mostly still move the individual florets around (if you don’t push down too hard) and they don’t flip about or disappear when you go in to see the detail. Sweet vernal grass is so lovely, the way is smells so strongly of hay. But in truth I’ve not seen the fertile vs unfertile flowers myself. They are probably there, but sometimes I wonder if these species diagnostics are invariably present? Or maybe wait til a touch later in the season when the individual flowers are more mature and possibly less scrunched up together? Not much help, Im sorry. Good luck with it, hope you find the infertile vs fertile ones.