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| Velvet Grass; Holcus lanatus L. |
Grass Family; GRAMINEÆ (POACEÆ)
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| Velvet grass, when fondled, is so rapturously soft, so gently pleasing, that it calls to mind delightful, innocent pleasures. Velvet
grass is the sort of grass to make the Naked Gardener smile. None of the previous weedy grasses we've featured are so lovable, and
some are execrable demons. The five done already are: Annual Bluegrass (Poa annua), Crabgrass (Digitaria sanguinalis), Orchard
Grass (Dactylis glomerata), Quackgrass (Elytrigia repens), and Ripgut (Bromus spp.). |
| Velvet grass is last (no more grasses) because it is relatively tame, less common, and might have been omitted
altogether except it is so distinctive. We think of grasses as being grass-green. Velvet grass is gray-green and velvety hairy. Its relatively
broad gray leaves contrast with pure green, narrower blades of typical lawn grass species. Our illustration, from the 1955
Grasses of British Columbia, is too poorly reproduced to show the fine hairs coating the plant. |
| The name Holcus is derived from Greek holkos, and originally signified a grain crop. In Latin,
lanatus means wooly. Velvet grass is also known as Yorkshire Fog, Old White-top, Feather Grass, and White Timothy. Besides its memorable foliage, its
flower clusters are often distinctive. They can be a pretty shade of pink or pale purple, and in seed can fade to an attractive ghostly
white: especially handsome against dark backgrounds. It is perennial, and grows 1 to 3 feet tall. Every bit as pretty as many exotic
species sold as ornamental grasses, it especially puts to shame those dead-looking brown sedges. |
Like most of our grasses, weedy or not, Velvet grass is from the Old World. It blooms in May or June, and is very
conspicuous in July. It prefers sunny sites, tolerates sterile ground, and enjoys moist soil but is drought-tolerant. It is a clumper, not a
rampant root-creeper.
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Originally published as the Seattle Tilth newsletter Weed of the Month in May 1995, along with an illustration from a book.
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