Street Grass

Photographed the median strip on the south side of the connector road between westbound Geary and Masonic. It's a desolate strip of concrete and wall that folks stare out at while sitting at Tony's Cable Car diner. Closely examined, the strip contains at least five types of grass, including Meadow Barley (Hordeum-brachantherum), Wild Oat, and some sort of fescue. It took a long time to figure out if it was meadow barley or squirrel tail (Hordeum jubatum), but I'm betting on meadow barley.

The meadow barley I see along 16th Street and in Golden Gate Park seems far more stripped down than the examples rendered in the guidebooks, merely a little triangular fountain of bristles, perhaps an inch or two long, shooting up from the very top of the stalk.

Soon I want to come back an identify all the grasses on this 100-foot strip and perhaps even leave a sign identifying the grasses at the spot. This project might be best called a street botanic garden--something that would happen if you invited Situationalists and botanists to the same party.

A great link of the type of meadow barley I'm looking at is on the great Hastings Reserve web site, at:
http://www.hastingsreserve.org/NativeGrass/GrasManagePics/Hordeum-brachantherum-tufts.jpg