Plant ID please

[Defenestratethecat]

Lawn is infested as per photo. What is it and how do we get rid?

It's a bit difficult to tell from your photo, but I'm wondering whether it is a fungal disease called Red Thread which can affect lawns after wet weather (of which we had plenty recently!)
A link to the RHS website which explains it: www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?pid=268

Thanks for your replies. Grass isn't frosted - colour just a bit washed out in the pics. It actually looks a bit like heather (it isn't). Couple more pics:

I'm going to say Moss.
And I think it looks pretty.

Bit more of a close up. I don't know if it looks pretty or not but the neighbours all have bowling green lawns and we feel as if we're letting the side down a bit

Is this a new lawn to you (just moved in)

If not, was it there last year?

It really looks like moss/lichen/sedum etc, but it would surprise me if they had grown that much over one winter

No, not new lawn. We've been here about 12 years and it's gradually got worse - started in a small area and spread. The lawn's quite rough and strawlike.

well then I guess it is little sedum/moss plants that are spreading.

if you want a better lawn, you need to put work in, and it is a lot of work!
mow/scarify/feed/moss treat etc.

I think thoguh that if you actually mowed it every week from April to October, you would find you lose plants and gain grass, and the grass will green up and smooth out and be less tufty.

or you could go the other way, and replace bit of grass with other low growing plants, like thyme etc and say it is an eco lawn!

Strewth. I've seen a lot of lawns, but I've never seen one like that. There's something pretty drastically wrong with it as a lawn, isn't there? I reckon it is something to do with the growing conditions. It looks almost like a peat bog. How much sun does that area get in the winter?

Can you dig a test hole and find out what the soil is like underneath? Use a spade to cut a square, then slide the blade underneath and lift up.

Yeah, I was just going to say, that looks like a piece of upland heath. New shoots of heather, and the "grass" looks more like a sedge, with the normal winter dying off. I've just been back to check your day of posting

Will get DH out with a spade tomorrow. The 'lawn' (ha!) Is pretty dry and on a slight slope so doesn't get waterlogged even when it's really wet. it faces South so full sun pretty much all day in summer and quite a bit of sun during winter too.