Festuca altaica
Festuca elmeri
Altai fescue, fétuque d'Altai, northern rough fescue, rough fescue
coast fescue, Elmer's fescue
(25)30-90(120) cm, glabrous or slightly scabrous;
nodes usually not exposed.
40-100(120) cm, glabrous, erect or slightly decumbent at the base.
closed for less than 1/3 their length, glabrous or scabrous, persistent, not shredding into fibers;
collars glabrous;
ligules 0.2-0.6 (1) mm;
blades deciduous, 2-4 mm wide, convolute, conduplicate, sometimes flat, 1-2.5 mm in diameter when conduplicate, yellow-green to dark green, abaxial surfaces scabrous, adaxial surfaces glabrous or pubescent, smooth or scabrous, veins 7-15(17), ribs 5-9;
abaxial sclerenchyma in strands about as wide as the adjacent veins;
adaxial sclerenchyma present;
girders associated with the major veins.
closed for less than 1/3 their length, glabrous, smooth or slightly scabrous, shredding into fibers;
collars glabrous, smooth or slightly scabrous;
ligules 0.1-0.5(0.7) mm;
blades 1.8-6 mm wide, vegetative shoot blades narrower than the cauline blades, flat or loosely conduplicate or convolute, abaxial surfaces glabrous, adaxial surfaces slightly scabrous or pubescent, veins 7-19, ribs obscure to prominent;
abaxial sclerenchyma in narrow strands;
adaxial sclerenchyma developed;
pillars or girders present at the major veins.
5-16 cm, open, often secund, with 1-2(3) branches per node;
branches lax, spreading, lower branches usually recurved or reflexed, spikelets borne towards the ends of the branches.
10-20 cm, open, with 1-2 branches per node;
branches lax, more or less spreading, spikelets borne towards the ends of the branches.
8-14 mm, usually purple, lustrous, with 3-4(6) florets.
(7)7.5-11 mm, with 2-6(7) florets.
glabrous or slightly scabrous, distinctly shorter than the adjacent lemmas;
lower glumes 4-6.8(8.5) mm;
upper glumes (4.5)5.3-7.5(10) mm;
lemmas (6.5)7.5-9(12) mm, chartaceous, scabrous, at least on the veins, keeled on the lo'ver 1/2, veins 5, prominent, apices attenuate or short-awned, awns 0.2-0.7 mm;
paleas about as long as or a little shorter than the lemmas, intercostal region puberulent distally;
anthers 2.6-4.5(5) mm;
ovary apices usually sparsely pubescent, rarely glabrous.
lanceolate, glabrous, smooth or the apices slightly scabrous, acuminate;
lower glumes 2-4 mm;
upper glumes 3-4.6 mm;
calluses wider than long, smooth or slightly scabrous, glabrous;
lemmas 5.5-7 mm, lanceolate, scabrous or puberulent, minutely bidentate, awned, awns (1.5)2-5(8) mm, subterminal, straight to slightly curved or kinked;
paleas as long as or longer than the lemmas, intercostal region puberulent distally;
anthers (3)3.4-4 mm;
ovary apices pubescent.
= 28.
= 28.
Festuca altaica
Festuca elmeri
Festuca altaica is a plant of rocky alpine habitats, arctic tundra, and open boreal or subalpine forests. Its primary distribution extends from Alaska eastward to the western Northwest Territories, and south in the alpine regions of British Columbia and west-central Alberta. Disjunct populations occur in Quebec, western Labrador and Newfoundland, and in Michigan, where it may be introduced. From the Bering Sea it extends westward to the Altai Mountains of central Asia.
The spikelets of Festuca altaica are lustrous and usually intensely purplish; plants with greenish spikelets have been named F. altaica f. pallida Jordal. A form producing pseudoviviparous spikelets, F. altaica f. vivipara Jordal, has been described from Alaska.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Festuca eltneri grows on moist wooded slopes, usually below 300(500) m, from Oregon to south-central California. The more southerly populations, which have larger spikelets with 5-6, rather than 3-4, florets and a more compact inflorescence with more or less erect panicle branches, have been named F. elmeri subsp. luxurians Piper.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
BC
OR
Flora NW
MI Flora
PNW Herbaria
WildflowerSearch
iNaturalist
USDA Plants Database
CA
