Common Couch - Elymus repens

Alternative names
Couch, Twitch
Description

30 to 120 cm tall grass forming tufts and spreading by far creeping underground rhizomes. Leaves with sparse long hairs on the upper surface. Inflorescences slender, erect with spikelets 8 to 17 mm close set so that they overlap one another by at least half their length the lemmas are usually awnless.

Similar Species

It can look superficially similar to rye-grasses, 

Identification difficulty
ID checklist (your specimen should have all of these features)

Inflorescence a spike with stalkless (sessile), flattened spikelets alternating up the rachis with a flat side against it

Habitat

Cultivated ground, grassland, roadsides and waste areas.

When to see it

June to August.

Life History

Perennial. It is hard to eradicate because of its deep rhizomes, any part of which if cut can re-grow.

UK Status

Very common throughout Britain.

VC55 Status

Very common in Leicestershire and Rutland. In the 1979 Flora survey of Leicestershire it was found in 596 of the 617 tetrads.

Leicestershire & Rutland Map

MAP KEY:

Yellow squares = NBN records (all known data)
Coloured circles = NatureSpot records: 2020+ | 2015-2019 | pre-2015

UK Map

Species profile

Common names
Common Couch
Species group:
Grasses, Rushes & Sedges
Kingdom:
Plantae
Order:
Poales
Family:
Poaceae
Records on NatureSpot:
102
First record:
01/07/1998 (John Mousley)
Last record:
28/10/2023 (Smith, Peter)

Total records by month

% of records within its species group

10km squares with records

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