Italian Rye-grass - Lolium multiflorum
This grass has smooth wiry stems and long inflorescences of stalkless spikelets arranged along the stem in two opposite, alternating rows, edgeways on to the stem, similar to L. perenne, but the lemmas are usually long awned (to 10 mm), and its leaves are wider (to 10 mm). It is also usually taller than L. perenne.
Lolium perenne - which doesn't usually have awns
Inflorescence a spike with stalkless (sessile), flattened spikelets alternating up the rhachis edgeways-on to it. Young tiller leaves are rolled, not folded. Florets are usually awned.
Arable and cultivated fields and sown grassland.
May to September.
Annual or biennial.
Common throughout Britain.
Quite common in Leicestershire and Rutland. In the 1979 Flora survey of Leicestershire it was found in 384 of the 617 tetrads.
Graham Calow
Higham on the Hill
12 June 2015
Graham Calow
Frolesworth
16 June 2015
Graham Calow
Sapcote
21 June 2013 border of Marsh near Old Fosse Sapcote SP 4978 9215 (taken 11.6.2008).JPG)
Graham Calow
Marsh near Old Fosse, Sapcote
11 June 2008
Barbara Cooper
Long Clawson
08 July 2012
 border of Marsh near Old Fosse Sapcote SP 4978 9215 (taken 11.6.2008).JPG)
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Species profile
- Common names
- Italian Rye-grass
- Species group:
- flowering plant
- Kingdom:
- Plantae
- Order:
- Poales
- Family:
- Poaceae
- Records on NatureSpot:
- 41
- First record:
- 11/06/2008 (Calow, Graham)
- Last record:
- 14/06/2025 (Higgott, Mike)
Total records by month
% of records within its species group
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Latest records
Graham Calow
Higham on the Hill
12 June 2015 border of Marsh near Old Fosse Sapcote SP 4978 9215 (taken 11.6.2008),.JPG)
Graham Calow
Marsh near Old Fosse, Sapcote
11 June 2008
 border of Marsh near Old Fosse Sapcote SP 4978 9215 (taken 11.6.2008),.JPG)
Ergot
Ergot (Claviceps purpurea) is a violet-black spindle-shaped structure longitudinally furrowed, up to 1cm long, and formed in the inflorescences of grasses. The fungal body is described as an ergot kernel.
Choke
Epichloe typhina fungus galls the stems of various grasses, the gall often having a rather tubular appearance. It is white in the early stages, yellowing when mature. On various grasses including many of our most common species including Sweet Vernal-grass, False Oat-grass, Cock's-foot, Perennial Rye-grass, Wood Millet, Timothy and Rough Meadow-grass.