Thinopyrum junceiforme

Thinopyrum junceiforme, the sand couch or rush-leaved wheatgrass, is a rhizomatous perennial grass in the family Poaceae native to the coastal dunes and sandy shores of western and northern Europe, including the Atlantic and North Sea coasts, the Baltic and parts of the Mediterranean. It is also introduced and locally invasive on the coasts of south-eastern Australia and New Zealand. The plant forms extensive spreading colonies through long, deeply buried rhizomes that bind shifting sand and play a key role in the formation of embryonic and yellow foredunes. Stiff, glaucous, sharply pointed leaves with strongly involute margins arise from the rhizome, and the erect culms (typically 30–80 cm tall) bear narrow, stiffly erect spike inflorescences of two-rowed spikelets each with several florets. The species is closely related to Thinopyrum wheatgrasses used in cereal breeding.