By Vileve
Middlesex,
United Kingdom 
as a child living in Folkestone I picked some grass which in my memory had a multi head of tiny round balls on the end of a fine stem which stood proud from the main stem and didn't droop I am sure it wasn't a 'quaking grass' I have looked in many 'grass books' and not found it... can someone tell me that my memory is not playing tricks with me! is there such a grass and could it only be found in Folkestone I wonder, I am now 91 years old and would dearly like to solve this puzzle. I obviously haven't got a photo to show you!!
7 Jun, 2018
Answers
thanks for answering I will check on that in my grass book or on line...I must say I have never heard of 'fountain grass'
7 Jun, 2018
No Bathgate..it wasn't a fountain grass ..I wish I could draw it! I can 'see' it in my mind ... it was a very fine grass not too tall .. and growing wild on 'Fan Hill' ... on which part of it has now has become a housing estate when I last visited
7 Jun, 2018
Sounds more like one of the Sedges than a grass.
7 Jun, 2018
I think I'm going to take the 5th since I'm in the USA. I plead the 5th!
7 Jun, 2018
Milum Effusum (wood millet) is the nearest grass description ...but why do I 'see / remember' tiny round 'balls' on the spikelets? I think I must accept that it was my imagination ...unless I hear differently. I have the Concise British Flora in colour and nothing in there that matches up to my 'image' ....I was clutching at straws hoping that someone would know or has seen 'my image' . but thank you for your suggestion, Owdboggy
7 Jun, 2018
Perhaps it's not actually grass,but something similar. Take a look at Carex, Sedges & Switchgrass. Maybe this website can help. I think you can email them. They know all about grasses.
A Complete Guide To Sedges
https://www.amerinursery.com/plants/sedges-guide/
7 Jun, 2018
How about 'Quaking Grass', Briza media.
7 Jun, 2018
Were the little balls perhaps seed heads and the books showing the grasses show them in flower? (not very likely but we are scraping the bottom of the barrel here...)
8 Jun, 2018
I agree Steragram about scraping the barrel! I remember looking for this 'grass' years ago when I had no computer...in books and libraries ....the bobbles were no more than 2/3 mm in size and trembled on the end of a straight hairlike stem from the main stem...I tried your web site Bathgate..but it turned out to be American!
so thank you all for your advice in trying to find the 'impossible?'
8 Jun, 2018
That sounds like quaking grass Vileve - unless there was just one bobble per stem... Oops. just noticed Bulba suggested that already.
8 Jun, 2018
Maybe Juncus (effusus)?
Have a look at this site:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juncus
There is a pic of it on the right side, below the Classification box.
There are also other types listed on the page.
8 Jun, 2018
This is a 'shot in the dark' but could you be thinking about Fountain Grass? There are many varieties.
7 Jun, 2018