Mis- ID'd.

Why do you say that? I have the tag.

Nevertheless you will see that your loose-panicled flower head is completely different from every other entry in the database. I've seen this plant at RHS Harlow Carr in every month of the year and have never seen the flowers look like that. It is overall a very vertical plant with long tightly packed flowerheads.

There are so many plants that have incorrect labels. Even botanical gardens can't keep up with the name changes.

This photo is clearly in the wrong place. I'll move it to the generic Calamagrostis entry.

Happens to all of us, MissMew. You might want to post your photo on the ID forum and see if someone can help figure out what you have.

MissMew insists that this plant was not misidentified. In a message to me, she says: "This photo IS Karl Foerster. I took an extreme closeup of the bloom while it was in its Purple-pink phase."

MissMew, do you have other photos of the same plant?

Out of curiosity, I went back and looked through my own photos. Here are two photos of my Karl. The second one does not look that far off from MissMew's, so...?

That does look similar.

Sometimes a plant growing in a particular climate in one part of the world may have a different look than the same plant growing in a another part of the world.

Sorry but I just don't see how the flowerhead on the left could turn into the one on the right. The structure of it just doesn't allow for that.

And yet, I do believe it is the same plant. I have 5 Karls planted around the perimeter of my firepit, and from the background shown, near as I can tell both photos are of Karl in different stages, and they are both labeled Karl in my Grasses photo folder. But to confirm this, here's what I will try to remember to do: next season I will take photos of Karl using the same plant and same angle with a distinguishing rock in all the photos (they are all nestled among boulders). First, I will shoot the entire plant, then a close-up of the seed heads. Kind of like a time lapse. I'll put a note in my calendar to remind myself. Should be interesting.

Please also reference database photos submitted by Jill, Admin, Treehugger, DebbieC, and Molinic.

When this plant is in flower, as it is in MissMew's picture (anthers are visible), it presents a quite different appearance than when it's not. It only flowers for a brief period, maybe a week or so each year. On the other hand, the seedheads, or the remains of the seedheads, can persist nearly year round. Consequently, people are much more familiar with how it looks when it's not in flower.

It's fairly common among grasses for the inflorescence to open up dramatically while they are actually blooming as a means of improving pollen dispersion. It's easy to miss as grasses often bloom for a very short period of time.

I've moved the photo back to 'Karl Foerster.'

Well it's humble pie time, I've gone through all my RHS Harlow Carr photos of this plant and have found one from its July blooming time and yes, it does look more like MissMew's photo.

I do apologise for doubting.

Next year I'm sure we'll all be out photographing flowering Karl Foerster!