English Couch - introduced (*Elytrigia repens)

Native to Europe. Perennial. C3.

Family. Poaceae (Grass family).

Uncommon. A weed of damp places.

Identification

• the flower cluster is a spike i.e. with stalkless flowers
• the glumes are longer than the lemmas and about equal to the spikelet length
• the lemmas are shortly awned
• the leaves are flat
• the ligule is membranous, shortly toothed and 0.3-1mm long.

English Couch, spreads by underground runners. The flowers resemble those of the rye grasses, in that the stalkless flowers are arranged in recesses along the main stalk. It differs in that spikelets of English Couch has two glumes, compared to the single (outer) glumes in Rye Grasses. It also differs in its spreading habit.

elytron: cover; gea: ground or earth, referring to its creeping habit; repens: creeping.

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