a genus of plants of the family Gramineae. The perennial grasses range in height from 0.5 to 1 m and have creeping rhizomes. The plants form a thick turf. The leaf blades are stenolinear. The inflorescence is a long and dense cylindrical panicle, and the spikelets are single-flowered and strongly laterally compressed. The glumes are stenolanceolate and keeled. The lemmas, which are leathery and have three to five ribs, are shorter than or the same length as the glumes.
There are two species of Ammophila, distributed in Europe, North Africa, and eastern North America. They grow on sandy coastal soils and dunes. In the USSR, the European beach grass (A. arenaria) grows on the coasts and islands of the Baltic Sea. The plant is sometimes used to stabilize sandy coastal soils and dunes.