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Yorkshire Fog
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| Yorkshire Fog photos | Family Name: Grass (Poaceae syn. Gramineae) |
| Scientific Name: | Holcus lanatus |  Plants of Yorkshire Fog Photo: A J Brown |
Status: | Native to north-west Arica, Europe and temperate Asia but widely introduced or naturalised in North and South America, southern Africa, New Zealand an Australia. | |
Plant Description: | A tufted perennial grass to 1 m high. Leaves are covered in velvety hairs, causing them to appear greyish. Leaf blades to 25 cm long and 3-10 mm wide. Flower-heads are moderately dense, narrowly ovate panicles, 3-20 cm long, pinkish when young and becoming whitish with age. Spikelets are two flowered, 4-6 mm long. Outer glumes or flowering bracts are of similar length and enclose the florets. The upper glume sometimes had a fine subapical awn or bristle to 1 mm long. Lower floret is awnless, the upper floret has a strongly hooked subapical awn, 1-1.5 mm long. | |
Habitat: | Mainly a grass of the drier midlands of Victoria but common on seasonally wet freshwater and saline swamp and lake margins. Very tolerant of waterlogging; producing adventitious roots from the lower parts of the stem. | |
Comments: | A larger and more robust grass than Annual Fog (Holcus annuus), Yorkshire Fog has been used as a valuable fodder grass in the northern hemisphere. Generally regarded as a pasture and waste ground weed in Australia. |
 Flower-heads of Yorkshire Fog Photo: A J Brown |  Emerging flower-head of Yorkshire Fog Photo: A J Brown |  Mature flower-head of Yorkshire Fog Photo: A J Brown |
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