Mibora minima   Early Sand-grass RRR DDD N

Mibora minima Guernsey Mibora minima Aberffraw Mibora minima Rhosneigr

This very small, tufted grass is not well illustrated in the books and can be difficult to find even if you know where it grows. It flowers between February and April and is typically only 1 cm or 2 cm tall (Stace says 8cm to 12 cm but I've never found it as tall as this). It is one of those plants you can't usually see until kneeling. Identification isn't a problem though, for apart from large coarse grasses with which it can't be confused like Dactylis glomerata (Cock's-foot grass) or Arrhenatherum elatius (False oat-grass), few other small grasses flower so early.

Mibora minima prefers disturbed ground and so can be found in dune systems where the rabbits have scraped earth and sand for a burrow. When the dunes become stable as they have in parts of Rhosneigr now, it becomes more difficult to find.

There a few old records here and there in southern England and very few in Scotland or Ireland but the strongholds are on the Sefton coast, Anglesey in various dune systems (not Newborough though) and in the Channel islands.

LHS: L'Ancresse Common, Guernsey 16th May 2005. Centre: Aberffraw, Anglesey 4th March 2008

RHS: Rhosneigr dunes 29th March 2005

Added on 29th march 2005, updated 4th March 2008,, updated 3rd January 2011

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