Yorkshire Fog - Hebrides Flora
Native to Scotland and The UK - and indeed all over Europe - Holcus lanatus a beautiful grass whose flowerheads are a pretty purple colour.
Velvety Grey Green Leaves
Yorkshire fog - a lovely colourful grass - seen all over Scotland. Yorkshire fog has velvety grey-green leaves which gives its common name.
Some say it was so called after the "yorkshire fogs". However the grass is actually a native plant of Europe.
Flowerheads
The flower heads are 100-200 mm long, often pink which appear in June and July.
The flowering stems which are round are erect with a seed head to 5-17cm long. The bases of the stems are white with pink stripes or veins
Soft Hairy Perennial
This perennial grass is recognised by its velvety surface (soft, hairy) on both sides of the leaves and also its distinctive greyish seed heads.
The stems grow outwards along the ground (rhizomes) then upwards to 1 metre.
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Yorkshire fog produces lots of seed and spreads very fast. . It prefers wetter ground, often seen around drainage
Common Names
The Yorkshire Fog is also commonly called velvetgrass (particularly in the US ), meadow soft grass, tufted soft grass
Seed Heads
Initially the seed heads are spike-like, with the branches folded flat against the main stem. The seed heads are purple in colour. During flowering the branches spread , making the whole head quite open in structure.
As seeds get older the purple turns to straw colour, and eventually the branches contract against the main stem again.
The growing conditions
This grass which is classed as a weed can tolerate a wide range of conditions. It really prefers however wet soils in sunny or partly shaded areas. It may disappear in dry years, and become abundant in wet years.
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