48 PASTURE PLANTS AND PASTURES OF N.Z. 



27. Quite hairless ; leaf sheath so strongly compressed 



as to have almost cutting edges ; no rhizome 



Cocksfoot 



A few spiky, silky hairs behind ligule ; strong 

 rhizomes Paspalum 



28. With Rhizomes 30 

 Without rhizomes 29 



29. An annual, usually only on waste land ; usually 



flowers all the year round ; about 50 per cent, of 

 the leaves transversely crinkled Poa annua 



A perennial in pastures ; flowers only in summer ; 

 few or none of the leaves tranversely crinkled 



Poa trivialis 



30. Growing on dry land, blades rather narrow Poa pratensis 

 Found only near slow running water ; broad soft 



blades Floating Sweet Grass 



31. Blades very narrow, often bristle-like 32 

 Blades broad 34 



32. An annual, often growing in tufts or waste ground 



or among crops ; awned spikelets nearly always 

 exposed or enwrapped in sheaths Hair Grass 



Perennials forming a turf in pastures 33 



33. With rhizomes which are often weak, but forming a 



very dense mat Chewings Fescue 



Without rhizomes Sheep's Fescue or Hard Fescue 



34. Ridges high and sharp ; no sign of medial groove 



on upper side of blade ; stolons or rhizomes 

 present Creeping Bent 



Medial groove, if present, very shallow ; no stolons 

 or rhizomes 35 



35. Dead sheaths at base of plant dark purplish brown ; 



ribs flat ; a broad, shallow medial groove on 

 upper side of leaf always present but often indis- 

 tinct ; on damp heavy land Foxtail 



