Agrostis stolonifera
Common name
creeping bent
Family
Poaceae
Flora category
Vascular – Exotic
Structural class
Grasses
NVS code
The National Vegetation Survey (NVS) Databank is a physical archive and electronic databank containing records of over 94,000 vegetation survey plots - including data from over 19,000 permanent plots. NVS maintains a standard set of species code abbreviations that correspond to standard scientific plant names from the Ngä Tipu o Aotearoa - New Zealand Plants database.
AGRSTO
Brief description
A sprawling mat-forming grass with creeping stems, sometimes submerged in fast-flowing water, with fine many-branched flowerheads, either open or narrow depending on flowering stage.
Distribution
Common throughout.
Habitat
Wide variety of wetland and aquatic habitats, also in drier habitats including roadsides, wasteland, grassland and open scrub. Lowland to subalpine.
Features
Sprawling stoloniferous, rooting at the nodes, mat or turf forming grass, 30-60 (100) cm tall. Can be submerged in clear fast-flowring streams/rivers. Leaf blade 1-20 cm long and 1-8 mm wide with an acute tip. Ligule 2-6 mm long, membranous. The flower heads are usually upright or bending upwards in a many-flowered open or contracted panicle 3-28 × 0.5-2.5-(6) cm.
Similar taxa
There are several similar sprawling wetland/aquatic grasses. Paspalum distichum has a shorter ligule and paired flower heads, Glyceria species have a boat-shaped leaf tip and cross-veins on the leaf sheath and Alopecuris geniculatus is often acutely bent at the nodes and has a spike-like flower head.
Flowering
Spring and summer
Flower colours
Green, Violet/Purple
Fruiting
Summer to autumn
Life cycle
Seed and stolons dispersed by water and contaminated machinery.
Year naturalised
1878
Origin
Europe, temperate Asia, N. America
Reason for introduction
Pasture species.
Control techniques
Can be controlled manually, mechanically or herbicidally depending on situation.
Etymology
agrostis: Greek name for a kind of grass
Attribution
Prepared by Paul Champion and Deborah Hofstra (NIWA)
References and further reading
Edgar E. and H. Connor. 2000. Flora of New Zealand. Volume 5. Manaaki Whenua Press: Lincoln, New Zealand.
Champion et al (2012). Freshwater Pests of New Zealand. NIWA publication. http://www.niwa.co.nz/freshwater-and-estuaries/management-tools/identification-guides-and-fact-sheets/freshwater-pest-species
Johnson PN, Brooke PA (1989). Wetland plants in New Zealand. DSIR Field Guide, DSIR Publishing, Wellington. 319pp.