Holcus lanatus L. Velvetgrass Habit: Grayish, velvety-pubescent perennial with rhizomes. Culms: Densely and softly pubescent, 30-60 cm. tall, erect. Blades: 2.5-15 cm. long, 4-12 mm. wide, flat, velvety grayish-green. Sheaths: Shorter or longer than the internodes, velvety grayish-green. Ligule: 1-2 mm. long, toothed, pubescent. Inflorescence: Densely flowered purplish terminal panicles 8-15 cm. long, often narrow and interrupted below. Spikelets: 4 mm. long, 2-flowered, the lower flower perfect, the upper staminate, the pedicel disarticulating below the glumes, the rachilla curved and somewhat elongate below the first floret, not prolonged above the second floret. Glumes: About equal, longer than the florets, villous, hirsute on the nerves, keeled, compressed, the first 1-nerved, acute or obtuse, the second broader than the first, 3-nerved, acute or short-awned, thin. Lemmas: 2 mm. long, glabrous except for the ciliate apex and shining, membranous, at length rigid, enclosing the paleas, the first awnless, the second 2-toothed, with a slender hooked dorsal awn, inserted just below the apex. Palea: 2-keeled, thin, nearly as long as the lemmas. Habitat: Meadows and waste places. Kansas Range: Eastern Kansas, rare. Use: Occasionally cultivated as a meadow grass but advantageously only on sandy or sterile soils. Synonyms: Nothoholcus lanatus (L.) Nash