Quaking-grass - Briza media

Alternative names
Quaking Grass
Description

An attractive grass 15 to 40 cm tall, that grows in loose tufts. The delicate flower stems of quaking-grass are branched with pendulous flowering spikelets that shiver in the breeze, giving the plant its common name. The leaves have a slightly waxy bloom and slender, blunt tips.

Identification difficulty
Recording advice

Provide a photo of the plant in its habitat (RPR)

Habitat

Dry neutral or calcareous grassland

When to see it

Flowering June and July.

UK Status

Widespread and fairly frequent in Britain.

VC55 Status

Locally frequent but threatened and declining through habitat loss in Leicestershire and Rutland.

In the 1979 Flora survey of Leicestershire it was found in 213 of the 617 tetrads and and in the Flora of Rutland (Messenger 1971) in 43 tetrads.

It is listed on the current VC55 Rare Plant Register (Hall and Woodward 2022) due to the threat-level

Leicestershire & Rutland Map

MAP KEY:

Yellow squares = NBN records (all known data)
Coloured circles = NatureSpot records: 2020+ | 2015-2019 | pre-2015

UK Map

Species profile

Common names
Quaking-grass
Species group:
Wildflowers
Kingdom:
Plantae
Order:
Poales
Family:
Poaceae
Records on NatureSpot:
51
First record:
07/07/2010 (LNC;Steve Woodward)
Last record:
17/06/2023 (lemmon, roy)

Total records by month

% of records within its species group

10km squares with records

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