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  1. Landform
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    1. Catchment Management
    2. Invasive Plants
    3. Land Degradation
    4. Irrigated Agriculture
    5. Catchment Hydrology
    6. Salinity Indicator Plants
      1. Common Name
      2. Scientific Name
      3. Common Family Name
      4. Scientific Family Name
      5. Key to Families or Genera
      6. Salinity in the Loddon Murray Region
      7. Salinity in the Central and Northern Victorian Region
      8. Salinity in the Western Region
      9. Salinity in the Wimmera Region
      10. Salinity in the Mallee Region
      11. Salinity in the Gippsland Region
      12. Salinity in the Coastal Region
    7. Salinity Management
    8. Declared Water Supply Catchments

Sweet Vernal-grass

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Photos of Sweet Vernal-grass
Scientific Name:Anthoxanthum odoratum
Sweet Vernal-grass in mixture of grasses
Sweet Vernal-grass in mixture of grasses
Photo: A J Brown

Status:
Native to Europe and Asia.

Plant Description:
Tufted or shortly rhizomatous perennial grass with smells of coumarin when crushed. Leaves are hairless or sparsely hairy, flat and grow to 20 cm long and 2-8 mm wide. Flower-heads are dense, spike-like panicles, 2-10 cm long. Spikelets have 3 flowers but only one is fertile. The sterile spikelets are awned; one being straight to 2-4 mm long and the other sharply bent and 6-9 mm long.

Habitat:
Common weedy species of pastures and waste ground throughout the cooler parts of the State. Often found as part of fringing vegetation around lakes and swamps and along water courses but doesn’t appear to be particularly tolerant of waterlogging. Is tolerant of acid soils.
RegionSalinity ClassWaterlogging Class
Central and Northern, Western, GippslandS0W0, W1

      Photos of Sweet Vernal-grass

      Newly emerging flower-head of Sweet Vernal-grass
      Newly emerging flower-head of Sweet Vernal-grass
      Photo: A J Brown
      Florets of Sweet Vernal-grass with exserted anthers and stigmas
      Florets of Sweet Vernal-grass with exserted anthers and stigmas
      Photo: A J Brown

      Flower-head of Sweet Vernal-grass
      Flower-head of Sweet Vernal-grass
      Photo: A J Brown

      Ligule and leaf blade of Sweet Vernal-grass
      Ligule and leaf blade of Sweet Vernal-grass
      Photo: A J Brown
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