Authors: L.  

Botanical Description

Tufted perennial up to 30cm high in bloom. Leaves 4-10cm long, partially folded and truncate, green. Panicles usually loose, sometimes compact, 3-7cm long. Spikelets 4-7mm long, green or purple-tinted, late summer. Mountains of Europe, Asia and North America, also circumpolar, in grassland, stony and rocky places. P.a. var. seminifera, with purple or purple and green spikelets. is162 P.a. subsp. fallax with glaucous leaves (from Turkey), and P.a. var. vivipera, with tiny plantlets in place of spikelets, are the only examples of this variable species worth cultivating.