Latin name: Aira praecox
Common name: Early hair-grass
Other names: Yellow hairgrass, spike hairgrass, early silver-hairgrass
How to spot it and where to find it: One of our smaller native grasses, early hair-grass likes dry, bare ground, including gravelly road verges, sandy heaths, rocky outcrops and even walls. Slender and erect, it grows to around 25cm tall at most, with narrow greyish-green leaves with smooth sheaths at the base of the stem. Between April and June, it produces compact egg-shaped flower heads containing two silvery spikelets per flower, covered with membranous bracts known as glumes.
Interesting facts: Early hair-grass is native to Europe and is quite widespread throughout the British Isles, though because it is small, it is easily missed. Like many grasses, it forms tufts but unlike most, its…
