Nardus stricta is a densely tufted, tough, wiry perennial plant

Perennial plant

A perennial plant or simply perennial is a plant that lives for more than two years. The term is often used to differentiate a plant from shorter lived annuals and biennials. The term is sometimes misused by commercial gardeners or horticulturalists to describe only herbaceous perennials...

 species

Species

In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring. While in many cases this definition is adequate, more precise or differing measures are...

 belonging to the family

Family (biology)

In biological classification, family is* a taxonomic rank. Other well-known ranks are life, domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, genus, and species, with family fitting between order and genus. As for the other well-known ranks, there is the option of an immediately lower rank, indicated by the...

 Poaceae

Poaceae

The Poaceae is a large and nearly ubiquitous family of flowering plants. Members of this family are commonly called grasses, although the term "grass" is also applied to plants that are not in the Poaceae lineage, including the rushes and sedges...

 (grasses), and found throughout much of the world. It exists on heath, moorland, hills, mountains; on sandy to peaty soils. It can occur from low elevations to over 3000 feet.

Its wide distribution can be accounted by the fact that it is not grazed by cattle or sheep due to being tough and unpalatable

Palatability

Palatability is the hedonic reward provided by foods or fluids that are agreeable to the "palate" in regard to the homeostatic satisfaction of nutritional, water, or energy needs. The palatability of a food or fluid, unlike its flavor or taste, varies with the state of an individual: it is lower...

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Description

Culms are erect and 25–60 cm long, with grey-green leaf-blades filiform

Filiform

Filiform can refer to:*Filiform, a common term used in botany to described leaf shapes.*Filiform papilla on the tongue.*Thread-like crystal formations*A corrosion mechanism...

 and involute

Involute

In the differential geometry of curves, an involute is a curve obtained from another given curve by attaching an imaginary taut string to the given curve and tracing its free end as it is wound onto that given curve; or in reverse, unwound. It is a roulette wherein the rolling curve is a straight...

, ranging from 4–30 cm long by 0.5–1 mm wide, i.e. bristle like. They are also unbranched. The ligule

Ligule

A ligule — is a thin outgrowth at the junction of leaf and leafstalk of many grasses and sedges or a strap-shaped corolla, such as that of a ray floret in plants in the daisy family....

 is 2mm and blunt.

The roots and shoots are very closely packed together at the base of the plant producing a white, tough, highly reflective feature.

The spikelets are very slender and loosely overlapping in two rows each side of the spikelet axis. Each lemma

Lemma (botany)

Lemma is a phytomorphological term used in botany referring to a part of the spikelet of grasses . It is the lowermost of two chaff-like bracts enclosing the grass floret. It often bears a long bristle called an awn, and may be similar in form to the glumes - chaffy bracts at the base of each...

 is tipped with an awn

Awn

In botany, an awn is either a hair- or bristle-like appendage on a larger structure, or in the case of the Asteraceae, a stiff needle-like element of the pappus....

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It flowers from June until August.