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common wild oats, flaxgrass, folle avoine, oatgrass, wheat oats, wild oat

Habit Plants annual.
Culms

8-160 cm, prostrate to erect when young, becoming erect at maturity.

Sheaths

of the basal leaves with scattered hairs, upper sheaths glabrous;

ligules 4-6 mm, acute;

blades 10-45 cm long, 3-15 mm wide, scabridulous.

Panicles

7-40 cm long, 5-20 cm wide, nodding.

Spikelets

18-32 mm, with 2(3) florets;

disarticulation beneath each floret;

disarticulation scars of all florets round to ovate or triangular.

Glumes

subequal, 18-32 mm, 9-11-veined;

calluses bearded, hairs to 1/4 the length of the lemmas;

lemmas 14-22 mm, usually densely strigose below midlength, sometimes sparsely strigose or glabrous, veins not extending beyond the apices, apices usually bifid, teeth 0.3-1.5 mm, awns 23-42 mm, arising in the middle 1/3 of the lemmas;

lodicules without lobes on the wings;

anthers about 3 mm.

2n

= 42.

Avena fatua

Distribution
from FNA
AK; AL; AZ; CA; CO; CT; DE; FL; IA; ID; IL; IN; KS; KY; LA; MA; MD; ME; MI; MN; MO; MS; MT; ND; NE; NH; NJ; NM; NV; NY; OH; OK; OR; PA; SD; TN; TX; UT; VA; VT; WA; WI; WV; WY; HI; AB; BC; LB; MB; NB; NS; NT; ON; PE; QC; SK
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Discussion

Avena fatua is native to Europe and central Asia. It is known as a weed in most temperate regions of the world; it is considered a noxious weed in some parts of Canada and the United States.

Avena fatua is sometimes confused with A. occidentalis, but differs in having shorter, wider spikelets, fewer florets, and a distal floret which does not have a heart-shaped disarticulation scar. Hybrids between A. fatua and A. sativa are common in plantings of cultivated oats. The hybrids resemble A. sativa, but differ in having the fatua-type lodicule; some also have a weak awn on the first lemma. They are easily confused with fatuoid forms of A. sativa.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Source FNA vol. 24, p. 735.
Parent taxa Poaceae > subfam. Pooideae > tribe Poeae > Avena
Sibling taxa
A. barbata, A. hybrida, A. occidentalis, A. sativa, A. sterilis
Synonyms A. fatua var. glahrescens, A. fatua var. glabrata
Name authority L.
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