The flora of PĂ©rigord in South-West France is abundant and diverse. In this blog you can find, in pictures, brief encounters with several hundreds of wild flowers and plants as they grow here in French Perigord. Following the seasons other species are added. An index of scientific and English names you find below on the right.

Corine Oosterlee is a botanist and photographer and she offers guided Botanical Walks and other activities around plants and vegetation in nature in Perigord. Do you want to know more? On www.baladebotanique.fr you can find more information. For Corine's photography see www.corineoosterlee.com. Both websites also in English.

Enjoy!




March 22, 2017

Annual Bluegrass



Annual Bluegrass (Poa annua) grows nearly everywhere and it flowers nearly all year round.




It is tiny so you have to look near your feet to see it. It is what you call an ordinary grass and it likes human presence where. It grows on sidewalks, between the pavement of a road, in forgotten corners of gardens and towns, around abandoned buildings, on walking paths. And also elsewhere.





The flowering stalks come out of a bunch of disorderly green leaves; those are slightly folded lengthwise.




Here, early in the morning, the flowers begin to open.





The small spikelets covered in dewdrops when opening, look more like a work of abstract art than like an inflorescence. The glumes, the small scarious scales that protect the spikelets are pink in this plant, bur often the plant is completely green, flowers included. Rhe stamens begin to get out, after a few hours they will release pollen in the wind.