So here it is. A very robust grass growing in tufts. It doesn't make rhizomes. The leaves are lighter green than with other grasses. The flower stalks are between 4.5 – 5 ft. tall. The racemes (if I am using a right word for what is at the top of the flower stalk, pic # 4) are very thick. I believe the grass is already in the seed producing stage. I put little circles on three of the pictures. On the picture # 1: is it a new shoot developing? On the picture # 2: how this part is being called? On the picture # 4: are those seeds?
Ditto to Cоck's-foot Dactylis glomerata http://ip30.eti.uva.nl/BIS/flora.php?selected=beschrijving&menuentry=soorten&id=4497
Thanks heaps! If you say so, it must be so. However it doesn't much perfectly the pictures on the Net, especially the leaves are much shorter. I will try to take a picture of the whole plant in its natural settings in the next couple of days and post here to see what you think.
I took another look and a few pictures of the grass. Here they are. As a matter of fact the more I compare the actual grass with pictures of Dactylis glomerata on the Net (which, by the way, differ from each other) the more confused I become. It is not only the length of the leaves but also the spikelets of "my" grass are much thicker and very compacted, not feathery like on the Net. They look completely different from the picture on the http://www.pfaf.org/user/Plant.aspx?LatinName=Dactylis glomerata for example, or at the Michael's link. What do you think?
This grass is one of rare cases in which I do not think twice. It is cosmopolite and from Siberia to Utah maintains the major feature - compact clusters of small spikelets on long branches. In addition to genetical variability (see Cytology section in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dactylis), environment and different stages of plant development may change the appearence. Compare, for example these two pictures of Dactylis glomerata I took from the same population in June and in August:
