Guinea grass Megathyrsus maximus

As many who read this blog regularly will know, I love illustrating grasses, so this day was a real treat for me.  (For more on grasses, see my blogs on Shortcuts to identifying some common grass species, Grasses of Montserrat, telling Sedges, Grasses and Rushes apart, An introduction to grass, the C4 Rice project, A class on Grass, and Glorious Grasses. Unless otherwise noted, all illustrations in this blog are by yours truly.)

A day of grasses

This one day event was organised by Kimberly Glassman, who is a postdoctoral research associate for the botanical collections at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge.

Landscape of rocks & Grasses, William Pyce 1806

Not only did she organise botanical drawings for us to see, and get us access to specimens from the Cambridge University Herbarium collections, but she pulled together an extraordinarily diverse group of students and experts to spend the day talking about why grasses don’t get the attention they deserve.  And what we can do about it.

Grass blindness

We are surrounded by grass.  Most of our food crops are grasses.  Fields of oats, barley, rice, sorghum, corn, and wheat are common across the globe.  Parks and hillsides are swathed in grass.  Our gardens are full of the stuff.  But how often do we stop and look at these diverse and amazing plants below our feet?

Bread Wheat Triticum aestivum

As Howard Thomas says in Grass Blindness (2019), “Some plants are born invisible, some achieve invisibility, and some have invisibility thrust upon them.  Grasses are a case in point”.

The conversations during the day focused on how the collections could be used to engage future museum and herbarium visitors (and researchers), and help shine a spotlight on the long-forgotten grasses.

Soft brome Bromus hordeaceus

Botanical drawings of grasses at the Fitzwilliam: Grasses as secondary subjects

After assembling and introducing ourselves, we got to see a selection of botanical illustrations, selected by Kimberly.

Everyone came with different areas of expertise, seeing the images in contrasting ways.  Conversations flowed, on topics ranging from women naturalists in the 19th century, to how grass is used as a material for making baskets and textiles in Vanuatu, field botany in the 17th C, and the manufacture of artificial flowers in 18th C France.  Members of the group are researching herbalism in book history and plant dyes, Victorian women in paleontology, gene editing in potatoes, North European paintings, and the genetics of crops and grasses.

Interestingly, I felt that only two of the beautiful illustrations laid out for us came close to respecting grasses as subjects in their own right.  The majority used grass as compositional elements, or to add heft to another, more blousy species.

Glass vase of pink & White roses, Antoine Chazal 1893

For example in the painting above, an exquisite miniature, there are grasses in the foreground that might be barley, or wheat.  But they are simply adjuncts to the roses and other flowers.

Bermuda grass is shown alongside another rose, in a 19th C illustration produced in Canton.  But there’s no focus on the grass, it’s all about the roses.

Spray of old roses & Bermuda grass, Canton workshop 19th C

Botanical drawings of grasses at the Fitzwilliam: Grasses as equal subjects

However, it’s clear in the painting by Harriet Cockerell that the grasses in her composition are true to life, probably a brome.

Posy containing Iris, Moss rose, Speedwell, Lilly; Harriet Cockerell 19th C

My favourite piece was a Pre-Raphelite-esque study.  Even though it’s not flowering, I reckon the grass painted alongside the snowdrops could only be Cocksfoot, Dactylis glomerata.  Grass being seen as worthy of illustrating, not only as an accessory.

Snowdrops in Undergrowth, Unknown artist 19th C

We wondered if the term “grass” helps reduce this group of plants to a catch-all.  Is it, in fact, a derogatory term?  Are grasses more visible in other cultures?  Braiding sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer was name-checked.  Are grasses mostly classed as “good” (crops) or “bad” (weeds, in itself another very problematic term)?  Are we blind to them because they are so familiar?  And they are not alone.  Moss and even fungi tend to go un-noticed too.

Grasses & Me: A love story by Madelaine Bartlett

Next stop was a fascinating talk by Madelaine.  She heads the Bartlett group which studies the evolution of grass and flower morphology at Cambridge University Sainsbury’s lab.

She pointed out that many flowers are morphologically conservative.  They get stuck because of their relationship with pollinators.  If you evolve and change, your pollinators may not keep up, and you run the risk of not reproducing.  Grasses, pollinated by the wind, have no such inhibiting factors.  Their morphological diversity is astounding, and perhaps this helps explain their variety?

Bamboo grass Lasiacis divaricata

She touched on the importance of corn, both in research and as a crop.

Then we learnt how we can use the genetic codes of diverse living grasses to figure out what the molecules of ancestor grasses may have looked like.  Thus empowered, you can switch around and project forward, by-passing the temporal constraints of evolution, and figure out ways to modify crops and imagine new as-yet unevolved species.

Common oat grass Avena fatua

But you can’t do any of this without really dense sampling.  This is where collections come in.

Herbariums have sheets and sheets of grasses.  These are not only a visual resource, but a genetic one too.  We can sequence DNA and proteins from tiny fragments of preserved materials.  Recently, RNA has been sampled as well.  Who knows how future scientists will be able to use such collections?  Already, herbarium specimens are being used to study changes in specimens due to climate change. We must future-proof, and conserve them, as physical specimens, not just digital records.

Herbarium visit

Next was our chance to see a selection of grasses from the herbarium, chosen by Juliet Anderson.  These were exquisite.

I often work from online images of herbarium specimens, and was amazed at how much richer and more beautiful they are in real life.  Although flattened, that slight three-dimensionality changed the way I saw them.

Specimens at Cambridge Herbarium

There was a table of specimens that we’d be drawing later, another of grasses as crops, and a third of historically interesting specimens.

Annual meadow grass Poa annua variety

I’ve had a lot to do with Annual meadow grass recently, and to see this sheet showcasing its extraordinary morphological diversity was lovely.

Juliet had also pulled out some pen and ink studies of grass flowers, and some 19th C teaching aids which I was very jealous of.

Bromus erectus flower illustration by Hounslow

On one table there were lots of crop species.  Looking at the Sugar cane, I felt entirely justified in having found the illustrating of its’ flowers last year something of a nightmare.

Sugar cane Saccharum officiarum

Sugar cane Saccharum officiarum

There were also samples showing Ergot in grains of crop species.  I knew about the suggestion that Ergotism was the cause of the hallucinations that sparked the Salem with trials (still hotly debated, see Debunking the Moldy bread theory), but was delighted to hear the suggestions that some of Hieronymous Bosch‘s visions may have been prompted by the same cause.

Ergot

Cambridge Herbarium and The Voyage of the Beagle

Entirely unexpectedly, there on a table were three of four grasses which, it transpired, had been collected by Charles Darwin on the Voyage of the Beagle in 1831 -1836  (For more on this remarkable adventure, listen to In out Time: The Voyage of the Beagle).

Voyage of the beagle Eragrostic pilosa

For someone who has always been in thrall to Darwin and the enormous changes his research caused, this was incredible.  Whether or not he also completed the excellent line drawing of the flowering spikelet, I do not know,  But imagining him gathering these specimens of the Galapagos, and seeing them on a table right in front of me, felt surreal.

Voyage of the Beagle Eragrostis ciliarius

Leaving the herbarium, it was inspirational to realise that all these collections are open to the public (by prior arrangement.)  What a way to combat grass blindness.

Reimagining grasses: A place for art collections & Herbaria

The last talk of the day was the keynote lecture, by Dawn Saunders of Gothenburg University.

This was a whistle stop tour of grasses in art, and an exploration of how artists have tried to build a doorway into the life of plants.

Grasses Harper Collins plate

Dawn was part of the “Beyond Plant Blindness” project, alongside Bryndís Snæbjörnsdóttir, Mark Wilson, Eva Nyberg, and Bente Eriksen. This focussed on the grass Stipa pennata.

One Stipa seed was enlarged to a gigantic 14m long SEM image, hung in a barn.  The same image was made into a wool tapestry hung the height of the atrium in Gothenburg University. Dawn talked about how visitors were confused and fascinated by the image.

The image turned our normal view of plants on its’ head.  The seed was at the front, an image of the plant become secondary, behind it.  Our role as human curators was a mere foot note.

Grasses: False Oat, Crested Dogs-tail, Cocks-foot, and Yorkshire Fog

The aim was to make people consider what being a plant means, what “plant-ness” is.

As Dawn said, “How do we build relational encounters for people to build narratives around their experience with the curated objects?”  How do you use art and herbarium objects to invite new people to think about plants in new ways?

The following discussion touched on the conceptualization of wonder, comparisons of preserved herbarium vs taxidermied specimens, the importance of naming things and the delight of recognition.  Rich grounds indeed.

Crab grass Digitaria ciliaris

Grass drawing workshop

The final activity of the day was an hour long workshop, illustrating grasses.  I’d been so interested I’d almost forgotten I was leading the session, and setting up was something of a rush.

I’d collected loads of little Poa annua plants, the only grass that flowers in late March in the UK, and some Dactylis, complete with in-your-face ligules to discover.  Alas, the Sainsbury’s lab couldn’t allow live material into the building (which is fair enough).

Annual meadow grass Poa annua

Juliet saved the day by selecting and photographing a wide array of common UK grasses held in the herbarium.  People worked from these print outs, first on gesture drawings and then on more detailed illustrations.

Quaking grass, Barley, Oats and Rye grass all proved popular.  By this point in the day, we were all really comfortable with each other, so people chatted happily as they sketched.

Quaking grass Briza media

An hour was not long enough, and it felt like we needed to finish up much too early.

Conclusion

And with that, the day of grasses was over.  It was, as I said to Kimberly, an inter-disciplinary fever-dream.  Historians, biologists, sociologists, curators and botanists.  All drawn together to be awed, excited, and inspired by grasses.  To fight Grass blindness, as individuals and as a group.  To work towards finding ways to use the collections at Cambridge University to encourage the whole world to embrace grasses for their beauty, importance, and diversity.

Enormous thanks are due to everyone who was involved in organising this event.  It was wonderful.

BBC Wildlife Magazine: Common British meadow grasses

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I first illustrated grasses way back in 2014, for the HarperCollins Flower Guide by David Streeter.  Not knowing that I was planting the seeds of an obsession, I volunteered to take on the Graminaceae pages.  A passion was born, which accompanied an extremely steep learning curve!  For more on grass anatomy look at my blog, and at one which explains how you can tell grasses, rushes, and grasses apart.

Grasses plate completed for the HarperCollins field guide

Researching the species list

As with most jobs, the first step is to research the species list provided by the client.  When this covers European species I can often go and find the plant growing in the wild.  Not so for Caribbean species.  Despite having spent some time looking at grasses in the spring, during my visit to teach on Montserrat, I didn’t have the chance to take visual or written notes.

The internet, especially iNaturalist, is a valuable resource in these situations.  So too is Kew’s online plant atlas, scans of herbarium specimens, and any number of US colleges’ agricultural resources.

I need written descriptions as well as illustrations of the grass inflorescence, and photos of the plants growing in situ.  For more on how to illustrate a plant when you can’t get your hands on it, take a look at my blog.

Another thing to remember is that there are numerous English names for each species, and obsolete Latin ones too.  To fully trawl all the information, you need to search all of the names relating to that one species.

Drawing up roughs

It’s always a relief to have botanists on board who can check my illustrations for accuracy, and the team working with Montserrat’s branch of UKOTCF are excellent. They look at the pencil drawings and give feedback.  Once I get the go-ahead, I can start adding colour.

Crab grass Digitaria ciliaris

Each illustration shows the plant with roots, the habit (the way it typically grows), and details of the ligule and individual spikelets (grass flowers).  These are crucial to correctly identifying grasses at species level.

Dutchgrass or Crowsfoot Eleusine indica

Grasses of Montserrat: Generalisations

Many of the grasses were far bluer than the species we get in the UK.  They also tended to have sprawling habits.

It’s interesting, and possibly ecologically significant, that the inflorescence structure of many of these grasses is digitate, like outstretched fingers.  In fact, many of these species are known as finger-grasses, or Digitaria.  The spikelets are often one-sided and compressed against the rachis. The same can not be said of most British and Northern European species, although of course there are many digitate species amongst those with more open panicles .

I found myself wishing over and over again that I’d paid more attention and taken visual notes when I was there in February.  Even little things like the way a grass blade discolours is so much easier to illustrate if you’ve seen it, and taken notes.

Dutchgrass or Crowsfoot Eleusine indica

Eleusine indica is also known as Indian wire-grass.

Montserrat grass species: Sourgrass Digitaria insularis

Sourgrass is a large, perennial grass that grows across the Americas.  It can be up to 4ft tall, and is a fast-growing and troublesome weed for farmers in South America; especially Brazil, Paraguay, and Bolivia.

Sour grass Digitaria insularis

Unlike lots of the other grasses on the list, Sourgrass has a loose raceme.  It grows on low open ground.

Although it’s seen as a weed in many places, I love this plant.  The flowering head is so elegant, and the swoop of the long leaf blades is a treat to illustrate.

Montserrat grass species: Lemongrass Cymbopogon citratus

Another species with a loose panicle is Lemongrass.  Yes, this is indeed the same plant that can be bought in grocery stores as a delicious cooking ingredient.  The part used is the base of the grass stem where the flavour is concentrated, although the whole plant smells lemony.

Leaves are quite long, and the base of the plant often bears a brown or reddish flush.

Lemongrass Cymbopogon citratus

Lemongrass is used in traditional medicine as well as cooking, treating digestive complaints.  There is some research that suggests it might also be of use in phytoremediation, where a plant helps remove toxins from polluted soil.

Montserrat grass species: Purple top Chloris barbata

Purple top is also known as Swollen fingergrass, Airport grass, Swollen windmill grass, or Purple chloris.  Originally from Africa and South-east Asia, it’s now pretty ubiquitous across the Americas.  It grows well on Montserrat, and in some places outcompetes other species.

Purple top Chloris barbata

The disadvantages associated with this plant aren’t directly relevant to Montserrat, as since the volcanic eruptions of the 1990s, there’s been little economically significant agriculture.  If this changes, the Purple top’s role as a host for pests of rice; and threat to sugarcane, tree crops like guava; and as an invasive on lawns may prove more problematic (CABI).

Inflorescence of Purple top

Although animals will graze on young plants, as it matures it becomes increasingly tough and is therefore no good as a pasture grass.

Single spikelet of Purple top

Irrelevant of its’ status, it was a lovely plant to illustrate.  The rich purples of the spikelets and the long awns made it a fabulous subject.

Montserrat grass species: Carpet grass Axonopus compressus

Carpet or Blanket grass is native to the Caribbean.  Although the grass flowers can reach 45cm, most of the vegetative growth is at low level.  The leaf blades are wide and green, and provide good ground cover.  It is used for lawns, and to help limit soil erosion.

Carpet grass Axonopus compressus

It can also be used medicinally, as a herbal bath and to cure heart problems (Medicinal plants of Guyana by DeFilipps). I am unsure if it’s used in this way on Montserrat.

Unlike Purple top, it’s good for grazing animals and doesn’t seem to have any negative effect on fruit crops (CABI).

Montserrat grass species: Jungle rice Echinochloa colona

This grass is another introduced species, originating in Africa and Asia.  I like it because of it’s geometry, and somewhat unusual flowering head.

The grains can be harvested and used as food when times are particularly tough, and it is the ancestor of Sawa millet.  In India, it is made into Khichdi, a dal eaten on fasting days or when you’re ill (click here for a recipe), and can be ground into a flour.

Jungle rice Echinochloa colona

Montserrat grass species: Bamboo grass Lasiacis divaricata

Bamboo grass is also known as Wild cane, Cane grass, and Tibisee.  It looks really unusual for a grass because of the broad leaves and the dark seeds, which resemble berries.

It’s a native species, favouring forests of broadleaf evergreens.  Although it grows in the undergrowth, it can also climb and grow amongst the trees.

Bamboo grass Lasiacis divaricata

Having a species with wider leaves, and shiny berry-like fruits, was a welcome change from the other grasses on the species list.  It looks more like bamboo than any other grass species I can think of.  Like bamboo, it grows from a woody stem.

It grows well in shady locations, and is used to provide ground cover.

Montserrat grass species: Sugar cane Saccharum officinarum

The last species of grass I want to focus on is Sugar cane Saccharum officinarum.  To call the history of this plant’s use contentious would be a gross understatement.  The growing and harvesting of sugarcane was the backbone of the trans Atlantic slave trade.  It was introduced to Montserrat in the 17th century, and the importation of enslaved peoples from Africa soon followed.  Montserrat has a large Irish population, some of who were plantation owners and merchants, and some of whom were themselves enslaved and worked with sugar cane.

In 1768 a group of Montserrat slaves revolted on St. Patrick’s Day.  Although the rebellion was unsuccessful, St, Patrick’s Day is still celebrated on the island, both for the Irish heritage and, I’m guessing, the bravery of those who rose up in 1768 (Fotbot).

Sugar cane Saccharum officinarum

This grass only thrives if tended by humans, and is delicious thanks to the high concentration of sucrose in the sap of the woody stem.  Native to New Guinea, it is now found across the tropics.  It is grown commercially in many places, and provides half the world’s cane sugar.  However, on Montserrat, sugar cane plantations ceased to be viable many decades ago (and long before the 1990s eruption of the Soufriere hills).

Detail of the panicle of sugar cane

Illustrating the complex panicles was a real challenge as the plant is large but each spikelet is tiny.  This meant representing the branches as irregular “twigs” rather than showing each flower.  The deep purple flush on the stem made up for this challenge though.  Many plants are flushed purple, but few grasses are as dramatically striped as the sugar cane.

Base of sugar cane stems

Other grasses

There were 12 grasses on the species list, so this is just a selection.  Guinea grass Megathyrsus maximus, Gophertail lovegrass Eragrostis cilarius, Crab grass Digitaria ciliaris, Dutchgrass Eleusine indica, and Seashore paspalum Paspalum vaginatum  also featured.

Guinea grass Megathyrsus maximus

As always, I was so pleased to be able to spend a few weeks researching and illustrating grasses species.  And to be doing it for the team I worked with at Montserrat National Trust and UKOTCF was a real treat.

I only wish I’d taken more notice of the grasses under my feet when I visited back in February!

Seashore paspalum Paspalum vaginatum with its beautiful purple stamens

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And, of course, I do botanical illustrations of them rather frequently.

Selection of grasses

I went on an FSC course recently, this time on identifying grasses (other grass courses by FSC are available here).  And one of the things I learned was some really quick tips to help identify some fairly common grasses.  So I’m going to share them.

Common grasses: Cocksfoot

I think Cocksfoot Dactylis glomerata is one of the easiest grasses to learn.  It forms thick clumps, and is rather blueish.  Leaves are folded as they grow.  They’re sometimes crinkled, as if the grass is being pushed up.  But the give away is the way the flowering heads branch.  They almost always have two lower branches which come out at wide angles from the stem.  this explains the name as people reckon the branches look like the divergent toes of a cockerel.  It grows from 15 – 140cm.  The ligule is quite long, white, and looks “torn” or ripped.

Cocksfoot Dactylis glomerata

The lower stem is often pale or even white.

Detail of Cocksfoot ligule

My two illustrations of separate plants show this diagnostic lower branch pattern pretty clearly.  The flowering spikelets are often tinged pink or purple, but be aware that this is true for quite a few grass species.

Common grasses: Rye grass

Rye grass Lolium perenne is ubiquitous.  It’s planted for grazing and also makes up the bulk of grass seed for lawns.  It’s incredibly tough, and will often be the grass still standing after being mown.  You often see residual flowering spikes all through the winter.  If unmown, it will grow to 10 – 90cm.

Rye grass Lolium perenne

Rye grass is really shiny green, especially when young.  Unlike most grasses, its flowers cling very closely to the stem.  They don’t branch out or droop.  The only other species that bears its flowers in a similar pattern is the Italian Rye grass.

Italian Rye grass Lolium multiflorum

The main difference between these two is that the Italian rye has spines or “awns” on its spikelets.  But you can see how similar the form of the flowering spike is.

Common grasses: Sweet Vernal Grass

Sweet vernal grass Anthoxum odoratum is another common grass.   It’s one of the first grasses to flower.  This species can grow up to 80cm high.  As the name suggests, it smells rather strongly of hay.  This comes from high levels of cumarin which is what gives hay its distinctive sweet smell.  Crush a blade of Sweet vernal grass and, in theory at least, you should be able to smell it.

Sweet Vernal grass Anthoxanum odoratum

It also has a “beard” of hairs around it’s ligule.  The only other UK grass to have a similar beard is the Heath grass Danthonia decumbens which only grows in arid places.

Detail of ligule of the Sweet vernal grass

Common grasses: Common Reed

Common reed Phragmites australis grows in rivers, canals, and ponds, and damp places.  It has broad blue-ish leaves.  It is a really big plant, growing to 2 – 3 m tall.

Common reed Phragmites australis

Reed flowers are quite easy to see too.  The outer layers are often flushed maroon which gives the flowering head a purplish look, and the spikelets have long spines or awns.

The big give-away with the reed is its ligule.  Unlike most grasses, it doesn’t have a membraneous one.  Its ligule is a simple circle of long hairs.  It’s the only UK grass that has this feature.  Coupled with it’s love for moist habitats, you can recognize the Common reed with no trouble.

Detail of an individual spikelet and the ligule of hairs of the Common Reed

Common grasses: Yorkshire fog

Yorkshire fog Holcus lannatus is one of my favourite grasses.  It feels different to almost all the other grasses (except the closely related Creeping soft grass Holcus mollis which tends to grow in woodlands not meadows), as if it’s made of incredibly fine velvet.  It grows from 20 – 100cm tall.

Yorkshire fog Holcus lanatus

The spikelets are often flushed a beautiful pink.  It’s worth noting that the flowering spike hides inside the sheath of a leaf blade before flowering, so you often see if very compressed.  Once in full flower, it has a wide spreading flowering head.

Yorkshire fog Holcus lanatus

But if this velvety texture doesn’t convince you, there’s another way to check you are looking at Yorkshire fog.  Have a rummage right down at the base of the plant, and look closely at the stems. If you see pink stripes, like old fashioned pyjamas, then you’ve got Yorkshire fog.  In fact, the whole plant is flushed pink, but again, that alone isn’t a species diagnostic.  The pyjama stripes are.

Pink “pyjama stripes” at base of Yorkshire fog

Common grasses: False Oat grass

False Oat grass Arrhenatherum elatius is everywhere.  You’re very likely to find it on road verges and in recently disturbed places, or unmanaged land.  It’s known as a ruderal species.  Although the flowering head is branched, the branches come close together once fertilized.  This makes the flowering heads look like graceful silvery arches. The leaves are flat and a dull green.

False Oat grass Arrhenatherum elatius

 The spikelets have really long awns, as long as the entire spikelet.  The long awns give the grass the effect of being very silvery as it catches the light. Each spikelet only holds two florets, one of which has the reproductive flowering parts.  Here’s a close up of the flower, showing the distinctive long awn:

Flower and lemma of the False Oat grass Arrhenatherum elatius

But there’s one more trick to identifying False oat grass.  Look at the roots.  The base of this grass has yellow-orange roots.  these are really distinctive, and may also be swollen into round bulb-like structures. For me, the yellow roots are the final piece of jigsaw that helps me i.d. this one right every time.

Yellow roots of the False Oat grass

Common grasses: Spotting your Meadow grasses

This is a bit of a cheat as it won’t take you to an actual specific species.  But many of our UK species are Poa, or members of the Meadow grass family.  So how can you tell if a grass is a Poa?  It’s mostly down to the distribution of the branches on the flowering spike.  If they grow in whorls, and the inflorescence is like a christmas tree in shape, then you’re likely to have a Meadow grass.

Rough meadow grass Poa trivialis

One other group of UK grasses are also whorled in growth, the Bents.  However, Bent grasses (like Common or Creeping bent Agrostis capillaris) flower later in the year.  They also have tiny flowers, much smaller than the Meadow grasses.  Also, Bent grasses only have one floret per spikelet.  Poa have many more.  The meadow grass above, Rough meadow grass Poa trivialis, can be identified by rubbing the stem on your upper lip.  if it’s rough, then it’s likely to be P. trivialis rather than any other meadow grass.

Meadow grasses are another of the species who have really obvious flattened and keeled leaves (like the Cocksfoot).  These blades are said to be “boat shaped”, with a distinct prow.  They look as if they’ve been folded in half.

Conclusion

So there you are.  A whistle stop tour of some of our commonest grasses, and how to identify them.  There are others that are crazily easy – the Bearded couch Elytrigia repens has extremely purple nodes (at least in woodland habitats).  It has distinct claws where the leaf blade meets the stem, and very little in the way of ligules.  These claws (“auricles”) are also flushed a vibrant purple. Look out for it in woodlands.

The Quaking grasses are easy too, mainly because they look so dissimilar to everything else.  They tremble in the breeze, grow in dry heathland, and are one of our prettiest grasses.

Quaking grass Briza media

And the Crested Dog’s hair Cynosurus cristatus is another one to keep an eye out for.  At a push it might be confused with Rye grass, but it’s distinctive zig-zag inflorescence feels very different.

Crested Dog’s hair grass Cynosurus cristatus

I hope I’ve managed to share some of my love of these diverse and glorious plants.  Not only are they fabulous and frequently overlooked, but they’re also wonderful to illustrate!  Now you;re able to identify a few species, give it a go.  You may well find yourself entirely bewitched by grasses, like I am.

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The twist on this commission is that this good garden needs to be cited in Sweden, which means a whole lot of research into Swedish hedging species, houses, garden plants, and native species of bird and butterfly.  However, many of the over arching themes and hints on how you can improve the health of your garden, and encourage wild animals and plants, are universal.

Hedges and Edges

Gardens which are welcoming to wildlife and encourage nature tend to have hedges rather than fencing.  There should be plenty of undergrowth to hide in, and hedging species should be native, or designed to appeal to pollinators.  In the main illustration of the Swedish garden, Maple and Hazel make up the majority of the hedging (although from a distance it’s hard to tell what the species is!)

Hedging – Lilac is often used for hedging in Sweden

Trees and Shrubs

Old established trees and numerous shrubs and bushes are good practice in a wildlife garden.  Rather than felling an ancient tree, make a feature of it.  This illustration has a central apple tree, with an area of young Birch saplings on the right.  Fruit trees are excellent in wildlife gardens as they provide blossom in the spring, and fruit in the autumn.  These benefit both the gardener, and the insects, mammals, and birds you’re looking to attract.  If you’re lucky, there will be other mature trees nearby.  These will link to the canopy of trees in your garden, making it easy for birds and insects to access your space.

Apple tree Malus domestica

Shrubs illustrated include more Hazel, and Buddleja.  Earlier in the year, Lilac provides nectar and pollen for bees, and looks lovely.  Not necessarily seen as a shrub, bushes of lavender can be beneficial for pollinators too.

Butterfly bush Buddleja davidii

If and when your established trees shed their branches, try to avoid clearing it all up.  Fallen wood encourages a whole different community of insects and animals, and leaving it on the ground allows the nutrients to seep back into the soil.

Apple tree with fallen branch left in situ

Woodpiles

You can introduce extra rotting wood into your garden by having a wood pile.  Allow this to rot a little, don’t be too keen to keep it neat and tidy.  Ivy, brambles, nettles and long grass growing around it provide perfect cover for animals seeking sanctuary, or somewhere to hibernate over winter.

Logpile with Hedgehog Erinaceus europaeus

Log piles are really good for fungus too.  The image above shows bracket fungus growing on the wood, along with more conventional “mushroom-like” fungi.  Look out for King Alfred’s cakes Daldinia concentrica growing on fallen Ash.  It looks like black balls, or burnt biscuits.  Turkey tail, with its striations, also turns up in woodpiles.  Fungi interact in the soil with other plants, and help recycle nutrients and encourage good soil health.  They break down wood, returning carbon, nitrogen and other vital minerals to the soil.

Turkey tail fungus Trametes versicolor

The woodpile in this good garden has a Coal tit perched on top, probably looking for small insects and caterpillars to eat.

Woodpile

Minimize Hard Surfaces

Straightforward enough advice.  Hard surfaces such as decking, gravel beds, and patios not only stop plants from growing on those spaces.  They also add to run-off from rain water, and stop the land from working as it should, like a sponge for rainfall.  Instead, water pours straight off and can clog drains and lead to flooding.  More on this in this article by the British Association of Landscape Industries.

Hard surfaces can also get dirty, and people may use harsh cleaners to keep their paves areas pristine.  Run-off from these can flow into water courses and damage local wildlife ecosystems.

Avoid Visible Soil

When trying to run a good garden, keep exposed soil to a minimum.  Patches of sandy soil can be useful for mining bees, but in general, bare earth doesn’t help wildlife.  When you’re growing food crops, inter plant between rows of vegetables.  Allow plants to work as cover crops, shielding the soil from erosion, protecting it from having minerals and nutrients washed out, and adding to soil health as these rot down.

This illustration shows Cabbage and Leeks growing under a cover of French marigold Tagetes patula and chives.  French marigold is a common companion plant, helping plants like tomato and aubergine to thrive.  Although it actual competes with Cabbage, it does have the benefit of repelling Cabbage white butterflies and caterpillars, which is why this good garden combines the two.  For more on Companion planting, see 10 suggestions of good companions on the Gardener’s World site.

Vegetable gardening

You can even choose to plant cover crops or green manures on areas of bare soil, expressly to improve the soil.  Nitrogen fixing plants like White clover or Alfalfa are good for this.

White clover Trifolium repens

Grow Perennials and grass, not Annuals and Vegetables

If you can, grow grasses and perennial flowers rather than short-lived annuals and vegetable crops which. once removed, leave the soil like a desert.  Some grass species are highly ornamental and look beautiful.  Many wild flowers are perennial, such as Cornflower and Foxglove.  Obviously, these will vary according to where you’re gardening.  Perennials are good for the gardener, too.  You no longer need to go and buy new bedding plants every year.  Perennials will return year after year, and many will also self seed.

Foxglove Digitalis purpurea

Planting grasses and perennials, be they native or not, is a good way to look after both animal visitors and the soil.  For more on what to plant, and how best to encourage butterflies to yoru garden, check out my blog.

Compost

Every good garden will have a compost heap, or two.  Worm bins are excellent ways of getting the most from food waste, you can even build your own!  Making your own compost means you don’t need to spend money on fertilizer or, even worse, buy unsustainable peat.

Compost heap

For information on how to make your own compost (and it isn’t difficult) check out this guide from the Wildlife Trusts.  Compost rots down, so it’s a good way to get rid of garden waste without resorting to bonfires or taking green waste to the tip.

Compost degrading over time

In Scandinavia (as elsewhere), thermal composters are popular.  This method of composting basically compresses compost, meaning the layers of organic matter and microbes involved in decomposition are in closer contact.  Garden waste may need to be broken down into smaller parts with a chipper, but the benefits are higher yields of compost and compost free of weed seeds.  It also doesn’t smell, is ready in 30 – 90 days, breaks down pesticides, and kills eggs and maggots of flies.

Hot composter with Robin perched on top

Leave Weeds on the Flower bed

This is new to me, but leaving weeds on the flower bed keeps the soil covered, and allows their nutrients to leach back into the soil.

Weeds left to rot on soil

Rainwater

Preserving rainwater is a great idea if you’re wanting to create a good garden.

Water but on left hand side

Water butts can be fixed to guttering, and will collect all the rain water that falls on the entire roof area.  Rain water is free from chemicals which are added to water that we get from taps; things like chlorine and fluoride.  Tap water isn’t bad for watering plants, but rainwater is much better.  According to the Royal Horticultural Society, rainwater “is free from hard water elements and is the correct pH for the majority of plants, including acid-lovers such as rhododendrons and camellias.”

Water butt collecting rain from the roof

Although it can be tricky finding enough places to put water butts, looking after rain water is a really good idea.  You can also combine it with installing a wildlife pond.

Wildlife pond being fed by rainwater

This is another excellent idea which encourages wildlife.  Rain water, devoid of chlorine, is by far the best option for aquatic species.  For more on how to establish a wildlife pond, check out the Wildlife Trust’s guide.

Wildlife pond

No dig Garden

Digging used to be de-rigeur for any gardener.  Many would double dig, every year.  Recent research suggests that doing this can be really bad for soil health.  It breaks up the microscopic networks of fungal hyphae, stopping them from interacting with the roots of plants.  There’s a lot of symbiosis between fungal and plant roots, on a cellular level, and such brutal treatment of soil makes this relationship impossible to sustain.

Double digging is now thought to be bad for soil health

But how can you aerate the soil, making it light enough for plants to grow into?  In the past, this was seen as one of the prime reasons for digging.

Alternatives are numerous.  You can plant Teasels Dipsacus fullonum, or other plants with seriously long and strong tap roots which break up the soil.  Teasels are also great for wildlife as their seed-heads produce thistle-like seed deep into winter, a real treat for goldfinch and other birds.

Goldfinch Carduelis carduelis and teasels

Mulching, growing a green manure like clover or alfalfa, and adding organic matter all help break up the soil.  Without damaging that all important fungal – plant symbiosis.  The Welsh Botanic Garden have more on the benefits of a “no dig” system.

Introduce Climbing plants

The more surface area you can cover with green growth, the better. Good gardens not only grow horizontally, but vertically too.  This means putting up trellis on buildings, and encouraging climbing plants.  Roses or clematis clambering up a house can look wonderful, and provide wonderful safe havens for overwintering insects and nesting birds.

House festooned with climbing plants like clematis, wisteria, and rose

Sometimes, you don’t even need to do any planting.  In my garden, Ivy sprawls across the whole of the back wall.  In winter it’s alive with flies and hoverflies, and spring sees it full of sparrow nests.  Although it’s not great for the wall, on balance I think it’s worth it.  And I never lifted a finger!

Ivy Hedera helix growing on a wall

Some plants are remarkably good at growing up things.  Old Man’s beard, Clematis vitalba can swallow up an abandoned building or a dead tree, and provide lots of safe spaces for wildlife.  Although this is an introduced species in Sweden, it’s become so ubiquitious that many Swedes are surprised to hear that it’s not a native plant.

Old Man’s Beard Clematis vitalba

Don’t Mow too much!

Mowing a lawn too often is a sure fire way to turn a good garden into a wildlife desert.  Even if you like carefully manicured turf, consider leaving islands of long grass unmown.  Small mammals can live in these pockets, and the long grasses shelter insects like grasshoppers, ants, and beetles.

Short tail or Field vole Microtus agrestis in grass

Pollinators thrive, feeding on the nectar and pollen of the wild flowers that inevitably also grow in these long-grass islands.  Many caterpillars have grasses as their main food plant.  It’s thought that you can bring up to 10x more bees to your garden if you simply avoid mowing all your grass too much (Plantlife 2019)!

Small skipper Thymelicus sylvestris on grasses

In the UK there’s an initiative called “No Mow May” in which gardeners and local councils are encouraged to put aside the lawn mowers for the month of May and allow butterflies, pollinators, and wild flowers to thrive.  It’s been hugely successful, and is becoming a given for any good garden.

Long areas of grass left unmown

Conclusion

There are many things you can do to turn your outdoor space into a good garden.  Don’t feel guilty if you’re unable (or unwilling) to make all these changes, or make them all at once.  Every small step taken will help.  And whether you’re gardening in Sweden, Britain, America, or anywhere else; trying to do something to help encourage wildlife and wild flowers in your own backyard has got to be a good idea.

For lots of good resources on how to garden well for wildlife (in the UK), check out Plantlife’s website.

Completed illustration of the “good garden”

Below is the annotated pencil rough of the Swedish “good garden” illustration.  It might help clarify any parts of the finished illustration that seem unclear.

Annotated wildlife garden illustration

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Plants have been on this planet for more than 500 million years, first appearing as red seaweeds and diversifying into the plethora of forms and species we share our planet with today.

FSC Guide to Ancient Woodland plants I illustrated showing a whole range of plants

Plant Evolution time line: Non-flowering plants

If we follow a time-line, we can have some idea of the course of plant evolution on earth.

Let’s start way way back, in the Ordovician, about 500 million years ago.  Nothing grew on land, but in the oceans algae, which we recognize as red seaweeds were growing.  Green plants evolved from these, and adapted into more algaes and plants we still have today, like the Charophytes.

Jump to 470 million years ago, the Silurian.  Plants have colonized land!  They still need water for reproduction, and can’t grow to enormous sizes, but the green takeover has begun.  In this time we see the emergence of Bryophytes: Mosses, liverworts, and hornworts.

Grimmina pulvinata and Tortula muralis

The next enormous milestone in plant evolution is the development of vascular tissue.  Plants are now able to grow tall, creating forests.  Clubmosses (or Lycopods, they’re not mosses at all) now emerge in the fossil record, about 350 million years ago.  Lycopods now are small plants, but at their peak they could grow into trees up to 30m tall.

Vascular vs non vascular plants diagram showing cross section of the stem with vascular bundles

Ferns and Horsetails emerge next.  Enormous tree ferns change the land,  shading out the bryophytes.  Even today, tree ferns can be enormous, and back in the Carboniferous they could grow to gigantic sizes.  They still need water for spore dispersal, but are able to colonise drier habitats.

Plant Evolution time line: Seed producing plants

A massive change occurs; the seed evolves.  This is, as Chris Thorogood puts is, “a little plant within a box”.  Suddenly plants can live in dry environments.  They can live as dormant seeds for years.

Gymnosperms; the conifers, cycads, and ginko appear around 320 million years ago, in the Permian.  Their seeds aren’t enclosed in a fruit, but in cones.

Jack Pine Pinus banksia tree

Jump forward to the Triassic and Jurassic 280 million years ago, and the Cycads are in the ascendency.

Plant Evolution time line: Flowering plants

No-one knows quite when, but around 130 to 100 million years ago something extraordinary happens.  Flowering plants appear in the fossil record.  With tough seeds, flowers for pollinators, and the ability to exploit almost every habitat on earth; these take over.  These comprise Magnoliids, Paleoherbs, Monocots and Eudicots.  And they take over the planet, remaining dominant to this very day.

Plant evolution: Red algae

Red algae are marine seaweeds.  It’s a bit of a catch-all phrase and covers most of the red seaweeds, unicellar and multi-cellular organisms.  Brown seaweeds are a little different, and are thought to have evolved through endosymbiosis with red algae.  A common red algae is Dulse, which is also edible.

Dulse Palmaria palmata

Plant evolution: Green algae and Charophytes

On a microscopic level, tiny green algae can be stunning.  Many, like Desmids, are unicellular.  Take a look at this film of Volvox (some Volvox are unicellular whilst others live colonially) or photos of Pediastrum, a green algae living in colonies

Some green algae are larger, forming mats in ponds and pools.

Charophytes appear in this group, and are considered the oldest living relatives of land plants.  They pop up in the fossil record 500 million years ago and have remained unchanged until now.

Delicate Stonewort Chara virgata

Plant evolution: Bryophytes

Bryophytes are mosses, liverworts and hornworts.  I’m yet to illustrate a liverwort or a hornwort, but they can be really pretty, like green leathery cloaks across the ground.  They like moist environments, and often decorate cliffs by streams and waterfalls.

Mosses are subjects that I have been asked to illustrate.

Red bog moss Sphagnum capillifolium tuft

For many millions of years, land masses on planet earth were covered in moss, without any other plants in existence.  It is an almost impossible mental image.  Moss reproduce with spores, and need water to reproduce.  Spores appear in tiny capsules which are held above the blanket of moss below.  Bryophytes are haplodiploid, which means there’s an alternation of haploid and diploid generations, and like all the other early plants they have neither flowers nor seeds.

Common haircap moss Polytrichum commune

Plant evolution: Lycopods

Lycopods come to dominate after the mosses and liverworts.  They have vascular tissue so could grow high, into enormous tree-like structures.

The Club mosses we see today are far smaller, and can grow horizontally.  You might see them growing on moorland or heath, especially in Scotland.  For more the Stag’s horn clubmoss, one of our commonest Lycopods, click here.

Stags horn clubmoss Lycopodium clavatum

Plant evolution: Ferns & Angiopteris (Tree ferns)

Ferns are still much in evidence today, again, favouring moist habitats where their spores can fertilize aquatically, often in a thin film of water.  There’s an abundance of variety in the form of ferns, some having divided and sub-divided leaves, others with smooth complete fronds.

Harts tongue fern Asplenium scolopendrium

Tree ferns can grow to massive heights to this day, in the right undisturbed habitats.  There are enormous ones in the rain forests of Kalinga, Philippines.

Illustrating Bracken Pteridium aquilinum

Plant evolution: Horsetails

Horsetails are often referred to as “living fossils”, and they are indeed truly ancient.

They produce spores from a cone or strobilus.  Most prefer moist environments, and in the UK they rarely grown higher than about 1m tall.  In Mexico, some species reach over 8m!

Horsetails have a distinctive appearance, with bristles or leaves coming off a central ridged stem.  For more on horsetails click here.

Water horsetail Equisetum fluviatile

Plant evolution: Gymnosperms

Gymnosperms are the first plants to bear seeds.  This enabled a massive explosion in the places these colonising plants could grow.

They’re pollinated by wind, and seeds are borne in cones.  The seeds themselves are referred to as “naked” as they’re not enclosed in a fruit.  However, animals have evolved to exploit this rich food source – just consider the Red squirrel or the Crossbill.

Dwarf Pine subspecies cones

Conifers, Cycads, and the Ginko tree (yet another plant always called a “living fossil”) are all Gymnosperms.

Gingko Ginko biloba

Of course, the most enormous plants on earth are Gymnosperms; the Giant Redwood tree.  These heights owe everything to the earlier evolution of vascular tissue which put ferns, horsetails and eventually Gymnosperms head and shoulders above the competition.

Giant Redwood Sequoia sempevirnes

Plant evolution: Flowering Plants (Angiosperms)

Modern seed bearing plants are incredibly successful, clothing and dispersing their seeds in an astonishing variety of ways.  Many advertise their pollen to insects, birds and mammals with complex and glorious flowering structures.  Others rely on the wind.  There’s not enough room to even begin a comprehensive overview here, but I’ll touch on the four main groups of flowering plants.

Overview of a Eudicot flower

Plant evolution: Flowering Plants: Magnolias

Magnolia are considered one of the oldest flowering plants.  They’re truly ancient, dating back 95 million years.  Although they have petals and sepals, these aren’t clearly distinguished from each other.  They are pollinated by little beetles.

Magnolia grandiflora

One of the many magnificent facts about the Magnolia is the longevity of its’ seeds.  Remember how we referred to a seed as a “box with a plant inside”?  Well, magnolia seeds which fell from the tree thousands and thousands of years ago can be planted up, and will grow to a successful adult tree.  This blows my tiny mind.

Magnolia

Plant evolution: Flowering Plants: Paleoherbs

Paleoherbs are also known as Basal angiosperms and, like Magnolia, are very ancient.  This whole group was entirely new to me, and exists as many of the plants referred to as Paleoherbs share features of the eudicots and of the monocots.  Plants in this group include the Aristolochiales (Dutchman’s pipe), Piperales (Black Pepper, Wild ginger), and Nymphaeales (lotus and Waterlilies) For more on Paleoherbs, have a look at the introduction from Berkeley College, California.

White waterlily Nymphaea alba

Plant evolution: Flowering Plants: Monocots

And so we arrive, finally, at the true flowering plants.  These are divided into two main groups, the monocots and the eudicots.

Monocots tend to have parallel leaf veins, leaves often grow from the base of the plant, flowers are three-partite.  They grow from grains or bulbs.

Spring squill Scilla verna

Orchids, flowering blubs like tulip, Arums, iris, and my favourites the grasses, sedges and rushes are all monocots.  It’s worth remembering most of our food crops (rice, maize, wheat, barley, rye, oats) are also monocots.

Grasses: Cocksfoot Dactylis glomerata, Deschampsia, Agrostis

Plant evolution: Flowering Plants: Eudicots

Eudicots mostly have leaves with a branching or netted vein pattern.  Their flowers have parts (eg, stamens, petals) in multiples of 4, 5, or 7.  Plants grow from a seed with two sides (think of a bean seed).

Some Eudictot families have heads with lots of flowers held together, in an inflorescence; not just one flower on the end of a stalk.  This is true of the Asteraceae, the daisy family.  Each of the outside “petals” is a ray floret, each tiny spot in the centre is a mini flower.  Take a look with a hand lens, it’s amazing.

African daisy Gerbera

75% of flowering plants are Eudicots, and they cover plants as diverse as the Cactus to the Lime tree, the Creeping thistle to the Potato, the Pomegranate tree to the daisy.

Prickly pear Opuntia ficus-indica

For more on the differences between Monocots and Eudicots, please check out my blog.

It’s the combination of that strong, safe seed; and co-opting animals or the wind to help pollination that’s led to this dominance.  Flowers are a by product that we get to enjoy, and to illustrate.  Fruit and nuts work for seed distribution, and feed us.  With these adaptations there are hardly any habitats on earth that the Eudicots can’t exploit.  They are indeed dominant.

Common Blue-sow thistle Cicerbita macrophylla

Conclusion

But I’m more in awe of the amazing variety and persistence of the plants that live on this planet.

From the unicellular green algae, still living in ponds and puddles as they did 400 million years ago.  To the Charophytes, unchanged and still growing in waterways.  The mosses which once blanketed the world and which still swaddle vast tracts of tundra and moorland.  Ferns, in all their beauty and variety remain massively successful – just look at Bracken on UK hillsides.  The strangely beautiful Lycopds and Horsetails.  Conifers and cycads, shedding cones as they have done for millenia.  Magnolia, enticing beetles with pollen all those millions of years ago.

Sphagnum magellicum

Please don’t disregard these plants, simply because they’ve not put their energies into growing pretty flowers to entice pollinators.  Instead, be awed by the majesty and history of the entire varied kingdom.  And perhaps we should all feel a little humbled by these temporal giants, too.

Enormous thanks are due to Chris Thorogood and to Julia Trickey – without Julia’s amazing series of talks I’d have never got to learn any of this fascinating information.  And without Chris and his extraordinary knowledge and ability to engage and enthuse, I wouldn’t have even known where to begin.

Euglena, a unicellular aquatic green algae

The post Plant Evolution: A brief overview appeared first on Lizzie Harper.

I draw and paint a wide range of different species for publishers, charities, packaging, ad companies, and design agencies. I am expected to know something (often a lot!) about the plants and animals I’m commissioned to illustrate.  As well as art school, I was lucky enough to do a Zoology degree, but this was many years ago now and a good deal of what I learned is now out of date.

Why Learn more?

Topping up my botanical and natural history knowledge is vital, and one of the best (and most fun) ways I’ve found to do this is by taking FSC Courses.  The more I know about a plant or an animal, the better able I am to understand it, and fit its form to its function.  More understanding means better natural history illustration.

Illustration of a Tulip with specimen, paint box, and brushes

Over the past ten years I’ve taken a wide range of FSC courses.  In all cases the tutors are enthusiastic and accessible, and the courses have taught me loads.  Everyone on the sessions is fired up with the same passion for nature as me.  It’s a comfortable and fun way to learn.

FSC Courses this year: Ants

This year I’ve fallen head first into loving ants, after a job illustrating the Wood Ants of the Cairngorm National Parks, which made me realise how little I knew about these amazing insects.  One FSC course led to another.  And another.  I’ve now invested in a lovely new microscope and have a three day residential course on identifying UK ants lined up, with Richard Becker.

Shining Guest ant Formicoxenus nitidulus

Other ant experts that’ve got me hooked this year are Gino Brignoli and Mike Fox.  See, that’s another amazing thing about these courses.  You often get taught by experts in the field, scientists and ecologists who are currently working, and provide these sessions on the side.  This means what we get taught is current, and relevant.

I love having the space and time to draw as I look at specimens through the microscope, and having such knowledgeable tutors on hand to help with learning and identification.

Annotated sketchbook page: Formicinae ants have hairs and an acidipore hair collar

The ant courses are part of an incredible array of online and in-person sessions offered by FSC called Biolinks, running from 2018 – 2022.  Funding allowed the organisers to keep costs absurdly cheap, and meant the courses were accessible to everyone.

Other FSC Courses this year

I’ve also taken plenty of other courses not under the biolinks umbrella.

This summer I did a fabulous course on identifying grasses with Fiona Gomersall.  This helped me sort my sedges from my grasses, and rushes.  I also learned how to immediately spot lots of common UK grass species, both in flowering and vegetative states.  This proved massively useful when I taught a two-day botanical illustration workshop on Painting Grasses at Cambridge University Botanic Gardens.

Grasses False Oat Crested Dogs-tail Cocks-foot and Yorkshire Fog

I’ve also taken courses on Social wasps with Ian Cheeseborough, and worms with Keiran Brown; accessing online ones too, on subjects as diverse as the Biodiversity of Knepp, Soil health and dung beetles, and the importance of the Yellow Meadow-ant to ecosystem health.

Earthworm Lumbricus terrestris 

Past FSC Courses

Another great thing about the FSC courses is how widely spread they are, geographically.  They have 24 centres across the UK, and a wide array of courses available at all of them.  I’ve only been to a few sites; but want to take in Slapton Ley in Devon, Rhyd-y-creuau in North Wales, and Millport in Scotland.

In past years, I’ve loved learning about Pollinators down in Bushy Park in London, having a day in Epping Forest learning about bats, learning about Spiders at Bishop’s wood, and doing a residential course on Rocky shore ecosystems at Dale Fort.

Nursery web spider Pisaura mirabilis

The focus on invertebrates reflects my favourite subject area rather than what’s on offer.  And it has to be said that despite them being mammals, I was really pleased to learn lots about bats.  I went with my sister; I bought her the course as a Christmas present and we both had an excellent day learning about how to help bats, UK species, and getting to use bat detectors to tell what species were swooping over a nearby lake at dusk.

Daubenton’s bat Myotis daubentonii

A particular favourite was the Slugs course at Bishop’s Wood with Chris de Feu. Evolution of slugs, slug variety, media misrepresentation of slugs (no, really.  And it was interesting too!), the fact that slugs evolved from snails not the other way around….it totally changed the way I see these maligned invertebrates.

Green cellar slug Limacus maculatus live specimen examining my illustration

The Rocky shore ecosystem course was wonderful.  I learned a ridiculous amount, got to paddle about and find Pipe fish and Blue ray limpets, and chatted with a lot of lovely like-minded people as well as the expert tutor, John Archer-Thompson.

The best bit was that right after the course, I was commissioned to illustrate a Rocky Shore ecosystem for The Hidden Universe by Alex Antonelli, so I had all the information needed at my fingertips.

Rocky shore line ecosystem zonation of species detail

Natural History and Life-long Learning at FSC: I love it!

For me, learning about the natural world is thrilling, and fills me with wonder.  It re-charges my batteries, and helps remind me why nature is so important to me on a personal and professional level.  It’s also very helpful with my job.  I take copious notes when I’m doing courses, and often use these to write up blogs afterwards.  These provide me with invaluable reference when out of the blue I’m asked to illustrate a harvestman, or some sphagnum moss.

Moss: Sphagnum capillifolium

Every year I sit down with the FSC catalogue (or online) and flip through.  It’s like being a child in a sweetie shop.  I set a budget and mercilessly keep to it, despite temptation to throw financial cares out of the window.  Often I feel like doing nothing but courses all year long. (Saying that, the courses offer great value for money, I think, even when not subsidised).  Different subjects appeal at different times.  I’ve barely scratched the surface of the FSC birds, mammals, and fungi courses.

Edible fungi an array of seven edible species including the parasol

I guess that’s what I love about these courses.  There’s always so much more to learn and be inspired by.  It’s so easy to simply sign up and go along.  And change the way you feel about a whole new corner of the natural world.

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The chart is very closely based on one provided by the course tutor, Fiona Gomersall.

Do remember that this is a brief overview.  To get into the details of these fabulous plants you really need to work through keys and use clear identification guides.  Lots of other sites have more on this, check out Nature’s calender, BCWF Wetlands video, Naturespot’s gallery of photos, and the BSBIs guide to grass resources.

Comparison table

This table compares the leaves, ligules, stems and flowers of Grasses, sedges, and rushes.  For more on each group, please check out past blogs: Grasses, Sedges, Rushes.

Although it looks pretty overwhelming at first sight, it’s actually not too bad.  And it’s great to have all the information together in one place.  The general description is something we won’t be looking too closely at, and whilst trying to identify and key out grasses on the course, deciding if a species was an annual or a perennial proved quite a challenge!  I guess it does show that if you have something that looks like a grass but is woody (like Bamboo, Bambusa vulgaris), then it’s going to be a grass species.

Leaf shape: Grass

Grasses have leaves made of two clearly distinct parts.  There’s the blade, with it’s parallel veins and often with a central rib or keel.  Then this folds, and surrounds the stalk of the grass.  This enclosing part of the leaf is called the sheath.  Sheaths can be open, with a clear slit, or fused shut, like a tube.

Common bent Agrostis capillaris

Here’s a close up of the blade and sheath of another grass, Cocksfoot Dactylis glomerata.  Grass blades vary in shape enormously.  Think of the broad and flat leaves of the Common reed Phragmites australis in comparison to the wiry needle-like leaves of something like Mat grass Nardus stricta.  Some grasses leaves grow rolled, and will emerge and may flatten out at maturity. Other leaves don’t flatten out, but remain needle-like through life (like the Fescues).  Other blades grow as flattened, laterally compressed shoots.  The easiest to bring to mind is Cocksfoot.

There are also ligules in the mix, thin (mostly) membranous structures at the fold between sheath and blade, but we’ll come back to them in a bit.

Leaf shape: Sedge

The leaves of sedges also have the same two distinct parts.  The blade, and the sheath.  The sheath is fused closed in all but one small African genus of sedges.  The blade is often “pliate”, or pleated.  This means that if you took a cross section of a sedge leaf it might look a little like a zig-zag.

Glaucous sedge Carex flacca

Below is a close up of the blade and sheath of the Dioecious sedge Carex dioica.  The sheaths are fused closed.  As with grasses, the shape of the leaf blade varies enormously.  Some sedges have very thin, needle-like leaves whilst others like the common garden plant, Pendulous sedge Carex pendulosa, have broad ones.  Colour varies too, from the almost blue leaves of the Carnation sedge Carex panicea to the bright yellow-green of the Long-stalked Yellow sedge Carex lepidocarpa.

Dioecious sedge Carex dioica

Leaf shape: Rushes

Rushes generally only have one part to their leaves.  The blade doesn’t have two distinct zones, but simply extends to a sheathing base around the stem.  However, there’s a lot of variety in the rushes leaves, mostly dictated by whether they are Juncus (rush) or Luzula (wood-rush) species.  I don’t think a true rush would be easily mistaken for a grass, they have a very different feel, and their leaves are round and needle like, and cylindrical in cross section.

Blunt flowered rush Juncus subnodulosus

Below is a close up of the leaf and sheath of another of the Juncus rushes, Three-leaved rush Juncus trifidus. As you can see, there’s no clear definition between the blade and the sheath, the two blend into one.

Three-leaved rush Juncus trifidus

The Wood-rushes are a little trickier as they have wider leaves and it can be hard to see if they have blades and sheaths or not, because the leaves are often low down on the plant.  The big give away with the Wood-rush leaves is the long white hairs.  All Wood-rush leaves have these, and they are very distinctive.  I don’t think even the hairiest of sedges or grasses produces leaves with these distinctive long, silky leaf hairs.

Greater wood rush Luzula sylvatica

These hairs are also apparent on the stem.  Below is a close up on the leaf of the Hairy wood rush Luzula pilosa.

Leaf of Hairy wood rush Luzula pilosa

Ligule: Grasses

Ligules are structures at the junction of the leaf and the stem.  They are mostly membranous in grasses, although sometimes will be replaced by a ring of hairs (as with the Common reed).  Sometimes they have hairs and membrane, and there’s a whole lot of variety in the shape of ligules.  They can be pointed or rounded, long or short, smooth or torn.  Ligules of grasses are often “free”, unfused to the leaf blade.

Marram grass Ammophila arenaria

Marram (above) has a long and pointy ligule which is really easy to see.  (It’s worth noting that Marram is one of the grasses we mentioned sporting rolled leaves, which you can see here in cross section.)

Below is an array of grass ligules to show their variety.

Grass ligule variety

Some cling closely around the stem, others are much looser.  Some are thin crescents of membrane, others are far more substantial.

Ligule: Sedges

Sedges also have ligules.  these tend to be less obvious, and are never free.  In all cases, sedge ligules are fused to the leaf blade.

Sedge ligule variety

However, like grasses they have a variety of shapes. Some are pointed, some are rounded.  They too are membranous.

Ligule: Rushes

Rush ligules are membranes at the top of a sheathing leaf base.  These tend to be really small and inconspicuous.  Checking through all my illustrations of rush species, I can’t find any where the botanist has asked for a close up of a rush ligule.

Stems: Grasses

The stems of grasses, sedges and rushes are possibly the quickest way of telling them apart.  They are also at the root of the common botanist’s ditty, “Sedges have edges, rushes are round, grasses have knees from their tips to the ground”.

So what exactly does “having knees from their tips to the ground” mean?  It refers to the nodes.  Nodes are found in all grasses, between the sections of the stem (or “Culm”).  Often the growth direction may change at a node, although this is far from inevitable.  Nodes may be flushed with colour.  In the Meadow foxtail Alopecurus pratensis, the nodes are ochre.  In some species they’re purple.  Some grasses have smooth nodes.  Others are thick with hairs, or positively velvety like the Creeping soft grass, Holcus mollis.

Grasses have nodes.  Sedges and Rushes do not.

Variety of grasses nodes

The other important point to note is that all grass stems are round in cross section, and hollow.  Rush stems are also round, but not always hollow.  And the stems of sedges are altogether rather different.

Stems: Sedges

Sedge stems are wonderfully triangular in cross section.  They are also solid, not hollow in most cases.  So a good way to check to see if you have a sedge is to run your fingers up the stem.  if it feels like there are edges there, it’s a sedge.  You can go to the trouble of taking a cross section of the stem, but sometimes sedge stems aren’t “in your face” triangular, so you may be disappointed.

Detail of the stem and cross section of Greater Tussock sedge Carex paniculata

And there are no nodes.

Stems: Rushes

Rushes have cylindrical, round stems, like the grasses.  However, they never have nodes.  And in many cases they have supporting internal structures, pith.  this may fully fill the cavity in the stem, or be distributed in species-specific patterns.  These can be seen if you take a longditudinal section down a rush stem.  Some rushes also have lateral pithy supports.  These can be felt clearly is you run your fingers up the stem.  They’re known as the jointed rushes and include species like he Sharp-flowered rush Juncus acutiflorus.

Sharp Flowered Rush Juncus acutiflorus

Below is a selection of rushes in cross section.  All are members of the Juncus rather than the Luzula tribe.  The spaces between the pith are air pockets.

Cross sections of Juncus rushes

So you can see that using the stems as an instant diagnostic between grasses, rushes, and sedges can be incredibly useful.  Nodes are grasses.  Edges are sedges.  And round stems without nodes are going to be rushes.

Flowers: Grasses

Now, when it comes to the structures of the flowering parts of these three groups, it’d be very easy to go down an anatomical rabbit hole.  I’m keen to avoid this.  For more on the botany and structures of grasses flowers, sedge flowers, and rush flowers, check out the relevant blogs I wrote a while ago.

Grass flowers can be single or held in assemblies known as spikelets.  The way these are arranged on the stem is important when it comes to species identification, some will cling close to the stem (like Rye grass, Lolium perenne), others will be on the end of long branches (like Hairy wood brome Bromopsis ramosa).

Hairy wood brome Bromopsis ramosa

All spikelets have male and female flowering parts.  The male parts are stamens, often with drooping anthers.  There are usually three stamens.  This helps the wind disperse the pollen.  The female parts are the ovary and two long feathery stigma (to catch that pollen).  The flowering parts are held within papery scales called glumes and lemma, and within these another scale called the palea.  Don’t worry too much about all of this.  The take home message is that grass flowers have male and female parts in one place.  And that they are bilaterally symmetrical.

The diagram below shows the outer “scales” that surround the flowering parts as well as the stamens and ovary.  I’m assuming I intended it to show a fertilized flower, or there would also be stigma coming from the ovary.  The spikes that in some grasses come from the glumes are called awns and deserve a blog of their own as they vary enormously from species to species.

Grass spikelet structure

Flowers: Sedges

Sedge flowers are either unisexual male or female.  Or, in some groups, bisexual, having female and male flowering structures together.  Often all the male flowers will be held in one spike, and the females in another spike.  these are frequently on the same plant. Don’t be fooled by the unisexual flowers though, you will sometimes have sedge species where female and male flowers are held in the same flowering spikelet (like the Brown sedge Carex disticha).  But if you look closely at the flowers of these unisex species, each individual one will have either all male parts or all female parts.

Female (above) and male (below) sedge flowers

Like the grasses, these flowers are enclosed in glumes.  Unlike the grasses, the female flower sends stigmas out from the Utricle, a vase-like structure which develops into the seed if fertilized.  Female flowers come from utricles which have two or three stigma.  this helps identify species, so be aware of it.

Sedge with Unisexual flowers, Common sedge Carex nigra

You can tell the spikes of male flowers from the spikes of female flowers without too much trouble.  The male flowers tend to be far thinner, and are often above the fatter female flowers (see above).  Although not always.  And be careful!  Sometimes unisexual male and female flowers are all mixed in together!  An example of this is the Brown sedge, Carex disticha.

Brown sedge Carex disticha

Other sedge species have bisexual flowers, like the grasses.  Cyperus Umbrella sedges bear bisexual flowers, as do the spike rushes, Eleocharis.  For more on sedge flowers check out this blog from plant i.d. net.

Few flowered Spike rush Eleocharis quinqueflora

These spike rushes are rather confusing because they look so different from other members of the sedge family, but they are instantly recognizable.  Unlike true rushes, they too hold their flowers within glumes.

Diagram of a sedge bisexual flower

Flowers: Rushes

You’ll be relieved to hear that rush flowers are rather simpler than sedge flowers.  All are bisexual.  Unlike grasses and sedges, their flowers are held within six “tepals”.  These tepals are not petals, although they might be mistaken for petals.  The difference is that petals are part of the corolla, and separate from sepals, the bits that you can often see lurking behind petals and which make up the enclosing bud before flowering.  In some plants, like rushes and tulips, there’s not distinction between a petal and a sepal.  So these structures are called Tepals.  Easy once you know!  And think about it, tulip buds aren’t encased in green sheaths are they?  It’s cause the whole flower is built of tepals, not sepals and petals.

Back to the rushes!

Rush flowers can be carried at the top of the stem, come out the side (like the Hard rush Juncus inflexus and the Soft rush Juncus effesus), or even be carried in the junction between stem and leaf.  This is the case for the Three-leaved rush Juncus trifidus. The hard rush on the left, Juncus inflexus, bears lateral flowers.  the Heath rush Juncus squarrosus has its flowers in a tight flowering head at the top of the plant.  The Greater Wood-rush Luzula sylvatica bears its flowers in a much floppier and looser terminal flowering head.

Three rushes showing different patters of flowering

Individual rush flowers are not bilaterally symmetrical like the flowers of grasses and sedges.  They are radially symmetrical.

Flowers are the same structure in a true rush flower (Juncus) or a Wood-rush flower (Luzula).  Below is a close up diagram of a Juncus flower.  You can see it has 6 tepals, 6 stamens, and a central female flower with 3 stigma.  Don’t worry about the perianth stuff, it’s another name for the tepals.

Rush flower

Flowers of the Wood-rush are similar, but often feel more star-like and open.  However, the underlying radially symmetrical structure is the same.

Conclusion

So there you have it!  Lots of pointers on how to tell your grasses, sedges, and rushes apart.  I still think the rhyme about “sedges have edges…” is the easiest way in.  But inevitably, once you get out in the field and start looking at all these plants, telling them apart will become easier and easier.

it’ll also give you a chance to crawl about on your knees being awed by how stunning all of these often over-looked plants are!

The post Sedges, Grasses and Rushes: Telling the families apart appeared first on Lizzie Harper.

Brief on the Hay meadow cross section

First, I was briefed on the cross-section.  I was given a paragraph of text saying what elements of the hay field needed including, and what species to put into the image.  It was a complicated one; there’s information ranging from tiny nitrogen-fixing nodules on a clover root all the way through to moles and swallows; underground information on root structure and distant views of hills and fields.  And a great deal of stuff to fit in!

I was also given the dimensions of the illustration, and where to put the “gutter” (where the magazine folds.)  It’s important to avoid putting crucial elements of the illustration in this zone.

Information on the illustration size and where the magazine will fold, relating to the layout (BBC Countryfile magazine 2018)

Pencil roughs

First up, I do an extremely rough thumbnail sketch.  This helps me sort out where the different elements might all fit in.

Thumbnail sketch

Next, I put together a species list and collect loads of reference to work from.  This comes from my sketchbooks, my own photos, books, online images, gets picked from the local fields or from my garden…  Every species needs to have reference, so this process takes some time.  If you’re using photos, it’s vital to alter them so that you neither infringe anyone’s copyright or perpetuate possible mistakes that might be due to a dodgy photo.  Every visual reference needs to be cross-checked.

Screen shot of one of the “reference images” folders collated for the job.

Now everything’s ready, I work up a slightly more detailed rough.  This is the spring board from which I can draw a very detailed rough.  Once completed, this gets submitted to the art editor at BBC Countryfile Magazine.

Second basic rough.

The more detailed rough is quite hard to read, so I tend to submit it as two image files.  One is a plain pencil line drawing, and one is annotated.  This means the art director can see what every element will end up being, and can start sorting out where to drop in labels and text for publication.  Each number relates to an item highlighted in the article text.  Annotations without a number tend simply to refer to the name of a plant or an animal.

Detailed pencil rough with annotations.

Changing the pencil rough

After getting feedback, I dropped the lapwing and family of partridges as the illustration was just too busy!   I make all other the required tweaks and alterations.  I had to have quite a complicated chat with Phil Gates about what the haustorium on a hay rattle root might look like.  These are super-cool structures that allow the semi-parasitic wildflower to parasitize the grass plants it grows alongside.   I also did some research on the root structure of the Pignut, and on mole burrow layouts.

Detailed revised pencil rough (mid ground and partridge and lapwing have been removed).

Starting on the painting: Background

All problems are now ironed out, and it was time to start with the painting.

Firstly, I paint in the background landscape, ever so pale.  It has to be recognizable, but indistinct.  It needs to not distract you from all the other stuff that’ll be going on in the foreground.  I’m lucky enough to know the hay fields at Muker in Swaledale quite well, so I based the landscape on that lovely and familiar view.  In fact, Swaledale is one of my favourite places on earth (see my blog on illustrating a golden plover in a Swaledale landscape).  Another reason to love this job.

The underground section felt like a different zone from the plants and butterflies in the meadow, so I worked into this next.  I enjoyed playing with the texture of the soil.  Using salt crystals on the paint as it dried gives a bumpy and soil-like appearance.  I also painted in the grubs and larvae that live underground, along with the moles and their burrow.

In seeing the top view and cross section as separate, I even found that I’d painted in the mouse’s tail (which drooped over the earth zone) but not its owner!

Love them as I do, a background of grasses isn’t the most fun thing to do, so I paint these in next, leaving white spaces for the wild flowers in the hay meadow, and the wealth of insect species that are to be included.  To avoid the whole piece looking flat, you have to use a wide palette of greens, which reflects the variety of hues in grass meadow species.

Painting in progress: The cross section underground zone, background, and grasses are done.

Painting the flowers and plants in detail

Then the wild flowers get added.  I also painted in the swallow, lark, barn owl, and more detail on the roots.  You can start to see how the painting looks more and more like a jigsaw, with white spaces where the insect and other animals will be painted in once the flowers are completed.

Painting in progress: The wildflowers get coloured in.

In this third photo, almost all the flowers and leaves are completed.  I love this moment, somehow it all feels possible, and I start looking forward to painting in the individual animals.

Painting in progress: Only the animals left to do!

Illustrating the animals

Despite the scale including barn owls and moles, it also includes harvestmen and tiny insects which require a certain amount of concentration to illustrate.

Illustrating the legs of a harvestman with my trusty Winsor & Newton series 7 brush (number 1)

It feels amazing when the last insect wing is coloured, and all the pieces of the jigsaw have slotted in together.  I take a few minutes to tweak the shadows, popping in darker shadows which help give a little depth.  The finished piece looks nothing like reality; but provides a biologically accurate diagram on which to hang the magazine article.

Completed illustration, with my paint box

I then take the painting off to my local printers where they scan it in on their A1 scanner, and then that scan gets passed on to the art editor and I file my invoice.

Final illustration of a cross section of a hay meadow in summer

Botanical illustration of two grasses

Meanwhile, I also completed two grass illustrations as they were the only two species from the “Common grass species of Hay meadows” that I’d not already painted and been able to re-use in the magazine.  These were far easier; the Sweet vernal grass grows everywhere (including my garden) and I love Quaking grass and have a plant of it in the garden.  Reference sorted!

New grass illustrations: Quaking grass Briza media & Sweet vernal grass Anthoxanthum odoratum

The next task is to forget all about it until the magazine came out in June 2018.

Seeing the work published in BBC Countryfile Magazine

Cover of BBC Countryfile Magazine, June 2018

I love the way they’ve annotated the illustration, it’s very unobtrusive and allows the illustration to stand strong as a double-page spread without being drowned in text.  I think it looks lovely in context (it’s always a treat seeing your illustrations reproduced ), and was so pleased to have collaborated both with the magazine and with Phil Gates.

My hay meadow illustration in context; BBC Countryfile Magazine June 2018

They also laid out the grasses species beautifully, and managed to make them look far classier that my original illustrations normally do!

BBC Countryfile Magazine 2018 (click on the link to find what species are illustrated here!)

So that’s the tale of a dream job, start to finish.  I loved it; the art editor was enthusiastic and encouraging, Phil Gates was well-informed and generous with his knowledge and his feedback, the reproduction and layout flattered my work…and I sold the original a month later!

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(We should also mention the rushes and sedges.  These are also monocots.  For a beginners guide to sedges click here, for a beginners guide to rushes follow this link.)

Drawing a plant is one of the best ways to begin to understand it.  I hope this crash course in grass anatomy will help.

Anatomy of Grass:   Overview of the Plant

Grasses have long leaves or blades, straight thin roots, a rounded (often hollow) stem (or culm), and a flowering spike.  Lots of people may not realise that the top region of a grass plant happens to be the plant’s flowers and seeds.  It becomes obvious when you think about a grass like wheat, but other species might fall under the radar.

Bread wheat Triticum aestivum

The culm of a grass has “knees”, these are known as nodes.  These nodes might be at a bend in the culm, or just on a straight run of the stem.  The culm tends to be swollen at the nodes.  They may be hairy or smooth, depending on species.  This bending at the nodes is known as genticulate growth.  Some people confuse grasses with sedges and rushes; remember that grasses are the only one of these groups which can “bend at the knees”.

The space between these nodes is called the internode.  Its length can help differentiate between species of grass.

Blades (leaves) of grass tend to be flat and linear.  They are rranged alternatively up the culm, and have parallel and unbranching veins.  Blades can be broad, or needle like.  In some species they roll in on themselves to make bristle-like leaves.  Noting if they are hairy or smooth helps determine the species.

The blades of grass grow up the culm like a tube, then grow outward.  This encircling or tubular covering is known as a sheath. Sheaths may cling tight to the culm.  They may be loose and inflated.  This is yet another thing to look out for if you’re trying to i.d. a grass plant.

Overview of the anatomy of a grass (Meadow oat grass Avenula pratensis)

Grass Ligules

Ligules are little flaps of membranous tissue that form at the top of the sheath and the base of the leaf blade.  They are very cool as their shape varies a great deal from species to species.  In many cases they’re tiny, so a hand lens might be handy if you’re going to take a closer look.  Some ligules are pointed, some are rough edged, some very thin, some broad and easy to spot.  Some species have no ligule, or have a ligule which is reduced to a ring of hairs.

Sometimes the edges of the leaf blade cling to the culm and surround the ligule (as in the second illustration below); these structures are called auricles.

Ligule variety in different species of grasses

Inflorescence variety in Grasses

The flowering part of a grass plant is called the panicle, flowering spike, inflorescence or flower-head (many of these terms also apply to other families of plant, and botanists use them somewhat differently at times, which can be confusing). These flowering heads consists of lots of tiny grass flowers which are called spikelets.

Diagram showing flowering spike diversity in the Grasses family: Spreeading panicle, flowering spike, Raceme & Compact panicle

If the flowering spike is unbranched, with each individual spikelet attached to the central stem by a stem (or rachis) it’s known as a raceme (as with Rye grass Lolium perenne and Tor grass Brachypodium pinnatum).

Racemes: Tor grass Brachypodium pinnatum and Italian Rye grass Lolium multiflorum

Panicles often refer to grasses whose spikelets are borne at the end of stalks on a branching flowering head.  They show an enormous amount of variety both in individual plants (depending on the age and developmental stage of the plant), within species, and (obviously) between species.

Variety of panicle shape: Yorkshire Fog Holcus lanatus showing one panicle still within the sheath, one fully spread at maturity.

Some other grass species with spreading panicles include Cocksfoot Dactylis glomerata, Common bent Agrostis capillaris, and Wavy hair grass Deschampsia flexuosa.

Spreading panicles in Cocksfoot Dactylis glomerata, Common bent Agrostis capillaris, and Wavy hair grass Deschampsia flexuosa

Panicles can also be very compact, and look like one tight structure.  This is particularly true of the Meadow foxtail Alopecurus pratensis.

Tight panicle shown by Meadow foxtail Alopecurus pratensis

Some other grasses with tight panicles include Crested Dog’s tail Cynosurus cristatus, Twitch grass Alopecurus myosuroides, and the Foxtails.

Tight panicles shown by Crested Dog’s tail Cynosurus cristatus, Twitch grass Alopecurus myosuroides

Grass Spikelets

Each individual spikelet, or flower, is made of distinct parts.  The stalk of each flower is called the rachis, and flowers are arranged alternately, or in a zig-zag fashion along it.

The base of each spikelet, be it one or several distinct flowers, is held in a pair of glumes.  These paired glumes have distinct upper and lower glumes, and these structures are important in determining grass species.

The glumes may have bristles or spikes attached to them.  These are called awns, and can be long or short, bent or straight, twisted (as with many Oat Avenaspecies), or absent.

Diagram of an individual grass flower or spikelet

Inside the glumes is the floret, which is the stamens and styles of each flower enclosed by two further scales or bracts, the lemma and the palea.  You’re down to hand lens work now, but characteristics to look out for are nerves along the middle (or lack of nerves), awns (or lack of awns), hairiness or not, and colour.

Normally, there are three stamens bearing anthers per spikelet; these often hang out beyond the flower; look closely to find purple ones (Timothy grass and Meadow Foxtail), orange ones (Orange foxtail), white, or cream anthers (many of the Bromes). False oat grass Arrhenatherum elatius has bright yellow stamens.

False oat grass Arrhenatherum elatius with yellow stamens and Meadow Foxtail Alopocerus pratensis with purple ones

Tillers

Some grasses put out lateral shoots, sometimes at quite a distance from the main plant.  These are known as tillers, and grow from horizontal rhizomes, or root-like stems which grow along the ground.  Grasses can rapidly colonise new habitats with this vegetative form of growth.

Tiller and rhizomes, shown on the Rough meadow grass Poa trivialis

Identifying grasses species: Features to look out for

Habit and habitat

What area is the grass growing in?  Is the ground wet or dry?  Calcareous or acidic?  Disturbed?  What season is it?

What shape and height is the plant?  Is it erect, tufted, or droopy?  Likewise, are the panicles tight or drooping, compact or loose, many branched or not?

Does it have rhizomes and tillers?

Leaves

How long and how wide are the leaves?  Are they hairy or smooth? Flat or inrolled and bristle-like? What colour are they?

Ligules

Fold the leaf blade back from the stem and find the ligule.  Look for its size, shape, edge, presence…

Spikelet

How are these arranged on the stem?  How big are they?  What colour? What texture?

Spikelet parts

Compare the size of the 2 glume scales, the number of nerves, awns or not, hairy or not.  Are the palea and lemma  awned or not?  How many nerves do they have?

Spikelets of False oat grass Arrhenatherum elatius and Common Oat grass Avena fatua

If you’re interested in learning more about British and European grasses, there are some really good reference books out there.  The “bible” of grasses is C.E. Hubbard’s Grasses; Colour Identification to the Grasses, Sedges, Rushes and Ferns of the British Isles by Francis Rose, Collins Guide to the Grasses, Sedges, Rushes and Ferns of Britain and Northern Europe by Fitter, Fitter and Farrer. You could also take a look at Collins Flower Guide by Streeter although it’s rather arrogant of me to suggest this as the grasses plates were all completed by me (with a great deal of help from David Streeter!)

I hope you’ll give the grasses a chance, and end up loving them as much as I do,  their beauty and diversity is mind-boggling.

The post Grass: An introduction appeared first on Lizzie Harper.

This is the C4 Rice Project, which aims to boost photosynthesis in rice and help feed the poor in developing areas of the world.

The reasons for wanting to develop a rice plant which has “super-charged” photosynthesis are pretty self-explanatory, and we didn’t go into these in our botany meeting.  There are an estimated 925 million people who are hungry, many living in areas where rice is a staple crop.  If the same area of land could boost rice yield production, then this could help mitigate hunger and provide food security for many people.  Developing a new rice plant which could do this might be the answer.

Carbon 3 and Carbon 4 grass types: C3 & C4 types

Peter explained that there are two types of grass, C3 and C4 types.  C3 types, such as wheat and barley, are cool season grasses.

Barley (Hordeum vulgare), a cool-season C3 grass

C3 Grasses

In photosynthesis, these fix CO2 into three-carbon compounds.  In cross section (consumately sliced by Peter) these grasses have blocks of green photosynthetic tissue between vascular bundles (veins) at intervals along the section.  This is the typical morphology of a three-carbon compound grass:

Rice, a staple crop in many areas afflicted with poverty and hunger, is a C3 grass.

Rice (Oryza sativa), a C3 grass

C4 grasses

The other type of grass is a C4 type.  These are warm season grasses, like maize, sorghum and sugar cane.

Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor), a C4 grass species

The leaves of C4 grasseslook different in cross section.  There are dark green rings around lots of small vascular bundles, which are closely spaced.  You can see this in the Panicum cross section below.  This is called Kranz anatomy, from the German word for a wreath.  Carbon dioxide is fixed into a four-carbon compound, hence the name C4.  This C4 compound moves into the dark green ring. Here the carbon dioxide is released and re-fixed by the same mechanism as in C3 plants.

So the C4 system acts as a pump, exactly like a supercharger added to an internal combustion engine.  The end result is that C4 plants can process more carbon dioxide per unit of sunlight absorbed. Importantly, they use less nitrogen and water than C3 plants.  In crops, this means higher yields from the same area of land.

What’s the aim of the C4 Rice project?

The aim of the C4 rice project is to get rice to photosynthesize like a C4 grass. C4 photosynthesis has evolved over and over again in a wide variety of vascular plants.  Surely, with scientific advances, and funding from the Gates Foundation, it should be possible to create such a plant?

This theoretical C4 rice plant is something many botanists and geneticists are working towards.  Ultimately, the C4 Rice Project wants to “construct prototypes of crop plants with enhanced photosynthesis that can be used by plant breeders in the developing world to improve yield and recource-use efficiency in a sustainable manner”, and “to use science to alleviate hunger in the developing world” (quotes from the C4 Rice Project leaflet).

Rice Paddy landscape

I am deeply moved by the ambition and hope of this project.   It’s a priviledge to have one of the founding members of C4 Rice research explain it to us. This blog is only a brief introduction to a very inspiring and important project; for more please do visit the C4 Rice Projects’ website.

Many thanks to Peter Mitchell for his input and help with this blog.

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