Common Bent - Agrostis capillaris

Description

20 to 50 cm tall, tufted with creeping rhizomes but no leafy stolons. Panicle is purplish brown and always spreading, with whorled branches.

Similar Species

Creeping Bent (Agrostis stolonifera) and Black Bent (Agrostis gigantea)

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

The panicle is branched. Each spikelet contains only one floret usually completely enclosed by its glumes. The inflorescence is very open with widely spaced spikelets which are not awned. The tiller ligule is shorter than wide - i.e. on the non-flowering shoot.

Recording advice

Look at the tiller ligules, not those on a flowering stem.  Photograph whole plant in flower and detail of tiller ligules if possible

Habitat

Drier and more acid grassland.

When to see it

June to August.

Life History

Perennial.

UK Status

Quite a common grass throughout Britain.

VC55 Status

Quite common in Leicestershire and Rutland. In the 1979 Flora survey of Leicestershire it was found in 388 of the 617 tetrads.

Leicestershire & Rutland Map

MAP KEY:

Yellow squares = NBN records (all known data)
Coloured circles = NatureSpot records: 2025+ | 2020-2024 | pre-2020

UK Map

Species profile

Common names
Common Bent
Species group:
flowering plant
Kingdom:
Plantae
Order:
Poales
Family:
Poaceae
Records on NatureSpot:
179
First record:
21/09/1998 (Anthony Fletcher)
Last record:
27/06/2025 (Bates, Adam)

Total records by month

% of records within its species group

10km squares with records

The latest images and records displayed below include those awaiting verification checks so we cannot guarantee that every identification is correct. Once accepted, the record displays a green tick.

In the Latest Records section, click on the header to sort A-Z, and again to sort Z-A. Use the header boxes to filter the list.

Latest images

Latest records

Photo of the association

Subanguina graminophila

The nematode Subanguina graminophila causes galls to form on grasses in the Agrostis (Bent) family. The galls take the form of a purplish or reddish swelling, usually near the base of the leaf blade.

Photo of the association

Epichloe baconii

Epichloe baconii is a 'choke' fungus gall on Bents (Agrostis species of grass) where the node of the stem becomes  encircled by a fungal stroma which is whitish to begin with then bright yellow when mature.