Agrostis perennans (Walter) Tuck.

Autumn Bentgrass; Upland Bent; Autumn Bent

Herb

Perennial

Vascular

Autumn Bentgrass is a native perennial in the Grass family (Poaceae). It can be found throughout Alabama. Autumn Bentgrass occurs on moist roadsides, in low fallow fields, and on shady stream banks. It is a cespitose (clump forming) perennial with a fibrous root system, and lacks rhizomes or stolons. Culms (stems) are 1-2 feet in height, and sometimes root at the lower nodes. The culms are usually decumbent or sprawling. Leaves are cauline and basal, though basal leaves are usually absent at flowering. The leaves are linear, glabrous, and entire. Cauline and basal leaves are approximately the same size. The leaf sheath is glabrous. Flowers are produced in spiklets that are arranged in panicles. Spiklets are greenish or tan in color, lanceolate to narrowly ovate in outline, and produced at the ends of wide spreading capillary branches. Each spikelet contains a single floret. The fruit is a grain enclosed by two keeled glumes, a papery lemma, and the palea is minute or absent. When the grain is mature it falls, leaving the glumes persisting on the panicle. Autumn Bentgrass is a larval host plant for Common Roadside-Skipper (Amblyscirtes vialis), and Fiery Skipper (Hylephila phyleus). Autumn Bentgrass is sometimes available from suppliers of native grass seed. It can be used as a “filler” in wildflower plantings, or as a groundcover in low, shady areas.—A. Diamond.

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Native FACU (NWPL) G5 (Global Rank)

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