Alpine bentgrass

Agrostis alpina, alpine bentgrass, is a tufted perennial grass in the family Poaceae native to the high mountains of Europe — particularly the Alps, Pyrenees, Carpathians, and Scandinavian fells — where it grows in alkaline alpine grasslands, scree margins, and short turf on rocky soils typically above the tree line. Plants form small, dense, often greyish-green tussocks 10–30 cm tall, with slender, smooth, often slightly bent culms arising from a fibrous root system without long creeping rhizomes. The leaves are mostly basal, narrowly linear, 1–2 mm wide, flat to inrolled, with rather rigid, finely scabrous blades and a long, pointed, membranous ligule 2–4 mm long — a useful field character separating it from the more lowland Agrostis capillaris. The inflorescence is a narrow, contracted, dense panicle 2–6 cm long with branches held close to the axis, often purplish-tinged. Spikelets are one-flowered, about 2.5 mm long, with a distinctive geniculate awn arising from the back of the lemma, projecting beyond the glumes.