Floating Sweet-grass

Floating Sweet-grass - Glyceria fluitans

Description

A hairless grass with creeping and rooting stems, often floating below in wetter habitats, but with erect ascending inflorescences 25 to 80 cm. Leaves flat, ribbon like 5 to 10 mm wide. Inflorescences little branched or unbranched 10 to 50 cm long, spikelets 15 to 30 mm long linear and cylindrical in shape, glossy grey green, with up to 20 florets.

Similar Species

other Glyceria

Identification difficulty
ID checklist (your specimen should have all of these features)

Larger lemmas (5.5mm +) than G notata or declinata, not toothed at apex; panicles sparsely branched and narrow

Recording advice

An image showing the flowering shoots with detail of the lemma tips. Ideally an image of a ruler alongside the lemma to show length, or a comment describing this. A voucher specimen may be needed.

Habitat

Often with its 'feet' in still or slow flowing fresh water, or in the muddy margins of pools etc.

When to see it

May to August.

Life History

Perennial.

UK Status

Very common in suitable habitats throughout Britain.

VC55 Status

Frequent in Leicestershire and Rutland. In the 1979 Flora survey of Leicestershire it was found in 335 of the 617 tetrads.

Leicestershire & Rutland Map

MAP KEY:

Yellow squares = NBN records (all known data)
Coloured circles = NatureSpot records: 2025+ | 2020-2024 | pre-2020

UK Map

Additional images

All NatureSpot records