star-grassn.²

1782 Session Papers in Sc. National Dict. (1968) VII. at Star A species of star-grass, growing to the height of five or six feet, which yielded excellent pasture.

1859 Entomologist's Weekly Intelligencer 19 Feb. 163/1 Ammophila arundinacea, here locally termed ‘star-grass’.

1870 Nature 15 Sept. 393/1 The Sand-reed (Ammophila arundinacea), locally called ‘starr-grass’, and woven by the people into mats and other articles.

1895 ‘M. E. Francis’ Frieze & Fustian 284 It is on the sand-hills that I generally find him, bundles of blue-green star-grass, ready to be planted, lying about him.

1932 J. B. Ritchie Pageant Morayland 34 Little islands covered with star-grass.

1967 E. Kerridge Agric. Revol. (2006) iv. 224 Some time before 1600 farmers in the Lancashire Plain started to plant star-grass on their dunes.

2007 S. Blackhall Absences 21 An sic a loch wis Spynie! Fringed wi star-girse, seggs an trees.

2009 M. Easdown Lancashire's Seaside Piers vi. 87 Previously just a range of sand hills held together by starr grass, St Annes-on-Sea was a purpose-built resort that formed the western part of the ancient manor of Lytham.