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This common grass, also known as orchard grass, takes its name from its flower head, where the spikelets gather in dense, one-sided clusters that spread like the toes of a bird's foot. Like all grasses, it is wind-pollinated. Here it is in full flower, with purple anthers hanging on fine threads to release pollen into the breeze.
Cock's-foot is a coarse, tufted perennial of rough grassland, field edges and disturbed ground, and it readily colonises restored colliery sites. Its caterpillar foodplant role is significant: it is eaten by the larvae of several grassland butterflies, including the meadow brown, gatekeeper, ringlet and speckled wood. Its dense tussocks also give shelter to overwintering beetles, spiders and other invertebrates, as well as cover for small mammals such as voles.
On land once stripped bare by mining, tussocks like these help turn rough ground into living grassland, sheltering much of the life that now returns.
This common grass, also known as orchard grass, takes its name from its flower head, where the spikelets gather in dense, one-sided clusters that spread like the toes of a bird's foot. Like all grasses, it is wind-pollinated. Here it is in full flower, with purple anthers hanging on fine threads to release pollen into the breeze.
Cock's-foot is a coarse, tufted perennial of rough grassland, field edges and disturbed ground, and it readily colonises restored colliery sites. Its caterpillar foodplant role is significant: it is eaten by the larvae of several grassland butterflies, including the meadow brown, gatekeeper, ringlet and speckled wood. Its dense tussocks also give shelter to overwintering beetles, spiders and other invertebrates, as well as cover for small mammals such as voles.
On land once stripped bare by mining, tussocks like these help turn rough ground into living grassland, sheltering much of the life that now returns.