Is this "Bristle oats"" (enclosed the flowering head of a grass, remarkably like a thin ear of barley). It grows freely near my vegetable patch.
Denis Byrne, Blackrock, Co Dublin
True to its appearance, it is wild or wall barley, a grass common in Britain, but found in Ireland mainly around Dublin. It grows on waste-ground, roadsides and cultivated ground, above all along walls. Children used to use the heads as darts because they stuck to clothes. The plant probably came into this country as a weed seed in imported grain. The bristle oat lacks the beard that protects the seeds of the wall barley, and resembles a spike of ordinary oats: it was a cultivated grain, grown on land too poor for ordinary oats.
A couple of weeks ago, while driving at 4 a.m. at 50 mph. I heard a soft thump of what must have been a bat being hit by the passenger side of my windscreen. After driving on for a mile, I returned to see if I could identify the species, but there was no obvious sign of a struggling bat on the road. Is it rare for bats to be hit by cars?
John Mullins, Wilton, Cork
I should think it is unusual - one rarely sees dead bats on the road - but perhaps bat echolocation can misjudge an object moving at that speed. On the other hand, if it was killed or injured it might well have been scooped up by any one of the predators that forage at that hour.
Edited by Michael Viney, who welcomes observations to Thallabawn, Carrowniskey PO, Westport, Co Mayo. (e-mail: viney@anu.ie)