Wood melick

Melica uniflora, the wood melick, is a delicate perennial grass of the family Poaceae growing 20 to 60 cm tall. It spreads by fine creeping rhizomes to form loose colonies, the slender culms bearing flat, soft, bright green leaves; a distinctive small green point (a bristle opposite the ligule) marks the junction of sheath and blade. The inflorescence is a very open, sparse panicle with few, widely spaced, ovoid spikelets on thread-like branches; each spikelet usually contains a single fertile floret with rounded, awnless, purplish-brown glumes, giving an airy appearance. It flowers in late spring and early summer. Native to Europe, North Africa and western Asia, wood melick is characteristic of shaded deciduous woodland, hedge banks and rocky slopes, often on base-rich soils.