Winter Grasses

Last week it seemed that our neighborhood was plagued by ice. When I walked to work one morning I realized that I spent a lot of time contemplating the sidewalk. I examined it in more detail than I ever wanted to as I negotiated the ice, so I figured that my photo for the day should include something of the sidewalk and be close to it. The bit of grass looks a bit beaten down, as we all can be in the dull part of winter.

This grass appears to be Slender foxtail grass. It is a perennial that commonly grows in sidewalk or roadside cracks. It flowers in July and grows from 4"-15" tall. If you look at the leaves they have a spiral twist to them. It is considered a weed but cows love it. Though in his 1869 Farmer's and Planter's encyclopedia Cuthbert William Johnson, Esquire observed no cows enjoying it and only small birds ate the seeds. Otherwise, he claimed that Slender foxtail grass is "One of the most inferior species of this grass. The herbage it produces is comparitively of no value whatsoever." Other than to be photographed, that is.

Sources:

Weed Gallery;Foxtails

Fox-Tail Grass

Johnson, William Cuthbert. The Farmer's and Planter's Encyclopedia. J.B. Lippincott, Philadelphia.1869. Google Book Search 12 February 2009