The top paddocks

Seeing as we're into some before & after shots, below left is a photo of the top paddocks as they are now in May. John mowed them in February just before the equinox (see previous post's link). The mowing has certainly done them good! They're now lush and verdant, ready for winter grazing.

I walked through them this afternoon and found many varieties of pasture grasses: some of them I recognise, such as rhodes grass, pangola (some call it digit grass), paspalum, green panic, bahia grass, ryegrass, and the rather unwelcome setaria for example. There are others I don't recognise, despite the fact that they all have quite distinctive seed heads and leaves. I gathered some seed heads this morning and photographed them (13 different ones, above). Someday I might be able to learn all their names. If you recognise any of them, please leave a comment!

1. setaria 2. ? don't know 3. ? like pangola but with four sprigs on the panicle 4. ? like paspalum but taller 5. ? like pangola but with six sprigs on the panicle 6. ? don't know 7. looks like green panic but different :-) 8. paspalum 9. ? don't know 10. ? maybe ryegrass? 11. pangola 12. green panic 13. rhodes grass