ABSTRACT The leaves of tropical grasses are eaten in larger quantities than stems of similar DM digestibility. To determine whether the same fact applied to a temperate grass, studies were made with leaf and stem fractions of Lolium perenne . The leaves of L. perenne had a 20% higher voluntary intake than the stems, white the DM digestibilities were only slightly higher (67·3%ν. 64·8%). The leaves also had a larger surface area/g, a higher initial (12 h) fermentation rate in vitro , larger content of pepsin‐soluble DM, and a smaller energy require ment to grind I g DM in a laboratory mill compared with the stems. The difference in voluntary intake between the leaves and stems of L. perenne was smaller than that for a number of tropical grasses.