Oat - Avena sativa

Alternative names
Cultivated Oat and as Common Oat
Description

Similar to Wild Oat, but the spikelets are 17 to 20 mm long, usually without hairs on the lemma bases; the lemmas usually unawned.  If awns present, fairly straight and usually glabrous

Similar Species

Avena fatua.  Other Avena may be cultivated and present as rare aliens.  This is a difficult genus; refer to Stace (4th edn.) for details.

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

Usually awnless; sometimes with nearly straight awns at maturity. Usually glabrous

Recording advice

You must attach images that show sufficient detail for the plant to be identified.

Habitat

Roadside verges and field margins.

When to see it

Flowers June to September.

Life History

Perennial

UK Status

Widespread in Britain as a relic of cultivation.

VC55 Status

Occasional escape from cultivation in Leicestershire and Rutland. It was not recorded in the 1979 Flora survey of Leicestershire.

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
Cultivated Oat, Oat
Species group:
Grasses, Rushes & Sedges
Kingdom:
Plantae
Order:
Poales
Family:
Poaceae
Records on NatureSpot:
13
First record:
05/06/2014 (Nicholls, David)
Last record:
30/06/2024 (Pugh, Dylan)

Total records by month

% of records within its species group

10km squares with records

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