Cudweed season is upon us (Gnaphalieae: Asteraceae). What makes these plants so tricky to identify is that their general woolliness hides all the bits that are important for ID. The other thing is that they are now split up into seven different genera
Let's look at how the genera are separated to begin with. I know it’s illegal, so you need to get the land-owner’s permission to uproot one of your plants. Is it an annual (left) or a perennial (right, with short rhizomes). The only perennial genus is Omalotheca.
The hard work starts with the annuals. Use your tweezers to free up at least one capitulum, and open it up to see inside. Find the marginal flowers (easier said than done). See if they have receptacular scales or not (illustrated with scales).
If they do have receptacular scales they are either Filago or Logfia, if not, then either Gamochaeta, Gnaphalium, Pseudognaphalium or Laphangium. I'm sorry that I dont have useful images of this key distinction, but I blame the woolliness.
Flower heads with receptacular scales first. Lots of capitula in each head (10-40) is Filago (left). Few capitula in each head (2-8) is its anagram, Logfia (right)
Flower heads without receptacular scales next. A refreshingly easy question at this stage. Is the inflorescence leafy (left) or are the leaves all below the region bearing flower-heads (capitula, right).
We’ll do the leafy inflorescences first. These are separated on the shape of the inflorescence. If it is a spike (left) you have Gamochaeta. If it is a panicle or a corymb (right) you have Gnaphalium
Finally, the genera with non-leafy inflorescences. If your leaves are green on the upperside you have Pseudognaphalium (left). If your leaves are white-woolly on the upperside you have Laphangium.
Getting the genus right is the hard part. I'll go through the common species within each genus now. There is just one common Filago species, F. germanica (F. vulgaris as was). Its leaves are widest in the basal half.
There's just one common Logfia species, too: L. minima (Filago minima as was). Making up new generic names that were anagrams of the originals reached its pinnacle in Cudweeds.
The perenial genus Omalotheca has just one common species, O. sylvatica (Heath Cudweed, Gnaphalium sylvaticum as was).
One of the commonest of all the cudweeds is Marsh Cudweed, found in damp, trampled ground in gateways and as an arable weed. This is the only species left in the genus Gnaphalium. It used to be known as Filaginella uliginosa, but is now Gnaphalium uliginosum.
Some alien species next. This is American Cudweed, Gamochaeta purpurea (G. pensylvanica as was), and very distinctive it is too.
The next one is best known as a seaside plant in the Channel Islands: this is Cape Cudweed, Pseudognaphalium undulatum (Gnaphalium undulatum as was) looking like a miniature Anaphalis.
Finally, a plant that has become increasingly abundant on urban pavements and brick-paved car parking places in recent years, particularly near the Essex and Kent shores of the R. Thames in London. This is Laphangium luteoalbum (Jersey Cudweed, Gnaphalium luteoalbum as was).
It is worth persevering with these Cudweeds, because once learned, you can do them by jizz alone, without even bending down. Top tip: learn them by their English names.
Laphangium from Gnaphalium is yet another anagram.
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Genera of Poaceae: Molinia. This is one of the last of the really important grasses to come into flower. It dominates huge areas of wet heath in the uplands, it's abundant in fens, and forms the understory of wet Betula pubescens woodland in the lowlands.
Molinia is in Key A of Stace's genera of Poaceae, because its ligule is a dense fringe of hairs.
First we eliminate lots of hairy ligule plants that are easy to identify: Zea mays, Sorghum, Tragus, Cenchrus, Setaria and several finger grasses (Dactyloctenium, Cynodon, Eleusine, Chloris). The first important question is spike or panicle. It's narrow but obviously the latter.
Here are the answers to the grass quiz. Don't worry about not knowing species in habitats you don't visit. I suggest you visit each of your local habitats in turn and make a point of finding, pressing and closely observing the species you didn't get right. Let me know your score.
While the grasses are still in reasonable condition, it might be a good idea to take stock of where you have got to in your quest. The plan is to revise the most important species in the form of a quiz (with answers later in the week).
I’ll show you 4 of the most important grasses from each habitat in turn, starting with roadsides. To keep track of the answers, I'll number them like this: 1 = top left, 2 = top right, 3 = bottom left, 4 = bottom right.
Key to the common species of Agrostis. You should collect underground parts and dissect a spikelet before beginning the key to determine whether the palea is large or small (more or less than 2/5 of lemma length). We shall start with the species with larger paleas.
Select a spikelet from the very top of the inflorescence. If the back of the lemma is hairy (left) and there is a sticking-out awn, you have Agrostis castellana (much planted in commercial grass seed). Hairless (right) is something else.
Look at the ligule on the upper-most culm leaf. If it is small (0.5-1.5mm) you have the widespread and abundant Agrostis capillaris. Larger ligules (2-6mm) are something else.
Genera of Poaceae. Agrostis. When you see a grass with a big open panicle like this (left) with tiny spikelets that look as if they might contain just 1 floret (right), your mind should turn to the genus Agrostis.
Agrostis is fiddly because the flowers are so small and tricky because it is essential that you bring back the underground parts from the field. You need to dissect the spikelt and expose the lamma and, crucially, the palea
Then, with some carefully cleaned underground parts, you need to say whether the plant has rhizomes (left) or stolons (right).
Here is one of my candidates for ‘most elegant of all British grasses’. It’s Apera spica-venti, and has a droopy, shining golden inflorescence, made up of tiny spikelets with ridiculously long awns.
It stands about 1m tall, and its considerable height means that the individual spikelets (less than 3mm long) look even smaller than they are. The awns can be up to 4 times this length (they are as much as10mm long and are seldom less than 5mm).
Apera is one of the genera where there is just 1 floret per spikelet, hidden completely by the glumes (Key F in Stace, with companions like Agrostis and Polypogon)