Sweet vernal grass

Description:
A smallish tufted grass, usually under 30cm high, which grows best in moist soils. Leaves blades are flat, bright green, to 8mm wide. The leaves are strongly scented of coumarin, a sweet smell unlike the usual "green" smell of most grass. Walking through a stand of sweet vernal grass may stir up enough of the smell to be detectable, or sniff the crushed leaves. The seed heads are dense, although becoming more open during flowering, green to begin with but ripening to pale brown.

Preferred habitat and impacts:
Usually found in ungrazed pasture and on road verges, tolerating a range of conditions but most invasive in moist soils in sunny or semi-shaded sites. It may disappear in dry years, and become abundant in wet years.
A weed of remnant grassy native vegetation in farming areas, where it can suppress native groundcover species. It tolerates infertile soils.