Anthoxanthum monticola

Anthoxanthum monticola, commonly known as mountain sweet-grass or alpine vernal-grass, is a small tufted perennial grass in the family Poaceae of cool-temperate and arctic-alpine regions of the northern hemisphere, occurring in northern Europe, Iceland, Greenland, northern Asia and parts of northern North America in damp meadows, snow beds, peaty tundra, stream banks and open subalpine to alpine grasslands. It forms compact tufts 10 to 35 centimetres tall, with short rhizomes producing dense bunches of slender, flat to slightly involute, soft-green leaves 3 to 8 centimetres long and 1 to 4 millimetres wide. The fertile culms are erect, slender, and bear at their tips a contracted ovoid to oblong spike-like panicle 1.5 to 4 centimetres long of pale green to brownish or purplish spikelets. As with other Anthoxanthum species, the spikelets are richly fragrant of coumarin when dried, releasing a characteristic sweet vanilla-hay scent. The species was formerly often treated as Anthoxanthum alpinum or as a subspecies of A. odoratum.