Identification of Grasses?

Question

I'm hoping someone here can help me, I'm doing some research for my dissertation into heavy metal contamination and have collected some vegetation samples for testing. I'd like to identify the plants if possible. My background is in geography so I'm a bit out of my depth.

The first seven pictures are from a vegetated mine tailing at ~300ft, without shade in the UK. In April the area had low-lying green grass and in July had tall (60-90cm) yellow grass. I think it may belong to the family Festuca but am not sure. The spikelets are 55mm long on average.

The eighth and ninth are from a low-lying river bank, in July.

The tenth is from a field which was recently cut for hay, in July.

The eleventh and twelveth are from a field in July.

Here are the photos: http://s430.photobucket.com/albums/qq26/tamatisk/

I would appreciate any help or points in the right direction.

Answer 1

Grasses can be pretty hard to identify.  I'd recommend contacting a botanist at your university.  You should have an herbarium there.  Contact the curator of the herbarium.  Botanists love to look at plants, so they will be more than willing to help you with identification.

It looks like the specimen you have collected has already gone to seed.  If possible get a flowering specimen.  Pull a whole plant, roots, and all.  This will help with proper identification.

Good luck.