Festuca californica |
Festuca filiformis |
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California fescue |
fetuque chevelue, fine-leaf sheep fescue, hair fescue |
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Habit | Plants densely cespitose, without rhizomes. | Plants densely cespitose, without rhizomes. | ||||||||
Culms | 30-150 (200) cm, glabrous or pubescent, sometimes scabrous. |
18-40(60) cm, mostly scabrous or puberulent below the inflorescence. |
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Sheaths | closed for less than 1/3 their length, persistent, glabrous or pilose, smooth or scabrous, sometimes scabrous or pilose only distally or on the distal margins; collars usually densely pubescent or with a few hairs at the margins, sometimes glabrous; ligules 0.2-5 mm, usually ciliate, abaxial surfaces puberulent; blades 1-6.5 mm wide, conduplicate, convolute, or flat, 0.5-2(2.5) mm in diameter when convolute, deciduous, abaxial surfaces scabrous or smooth, glabrous or the bases pubescent, adaxial surfaces puberulent to pubescent, veins 9-15(17), ribs (3)5-15(17); abaxial sclerenchyma forming more or less continuous bands, sometimes reduced to small strands; adaxial sclerenchyma sometimes present; girders or pillars present at most veins. |
closed for less than 1/3 their length, smooth or scabrous, glabrous or finely puberulent, persistent; collars glabrous; ligules 0.1-0.4 mm; blades 0.2-0.4(0.6) mm in diameter, conduplicate, abaxial surfaces smooth, adaxial surfaces scabrous, veins 5(7), ribs 1, distinct; abaxial sclerenchyma forming a continuous or almost continuous band; adaxial sclerenchyma absent. |
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Inflorescences | 10-25(30) cm, open, with (1)2(4) branches per node; branches spreading and lax. |
1-6(14) cm, usually contracted, with 1-2 branches per node; branches usually erect, lower branches with 2+ spikelets. |
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Spikelets | 8-18(20) mm, borne towards the ends of the branches, with 3-6(8) florets. |
3-6(6.5) mm, with 2-6(8) florets. |
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Glumes | lanceolate, glabrous or sparsely scabrous at the apices; lower glumes (4)4.5-6.7(8) mm; upper glumes (5)6-10 mm; lemmas (7)7.5-11 mm, lanceolate, scabrous, puberulent, sometimes minutely bidentate, acute, usually awned, rarely unawned, awns (1)2-3(4) mm; paleas shorter than to longer than the lemmas, pubescent or glabrous on the margins, intercostal region usually puberulent distally; anthers (3)4-7.5(8.5) mm; ovary apices densely pubescent. |
exceeded by the upper florets, ovate-lanceolate to lanceolate, glabrous; lower glumes 1-2.5 mm; upper glumes (1.7)2-3(3.9) mm; lemmas 2.3-4(4.4) mm, obtuse to acute, mostly smooth and glabrous, sometimes scabrous or pubescent distally, unawned, sometimes mucronate, mucros to 0.4 mm; paleas about as long as the lemmas, intercostal region smooth or scabrous distally; anthers (1)1.5-2.2 mm; ovary apices glabrous. |
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2n | = 56. |
= 14 (28). |
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Festuca californica |
Festuca filiformis |
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Distribution |
CA; OR
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CT; DC; IL; IN; MA; MD; ME; MI; MS; MT; NC; NH; NJ; NY; OH; OR; PA; RI; SC; TN; VA; VT; WA; WI; WV; AB; BC; NB; NL; NS; ON; PE; QC
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Discussion | Festuca californica grows on dry, open slopes and moist streambanks in thickets and open woods, from sea level to 2000 m. Its range extends from Clackamas County, Oregon, to the Sierra Nevada and southern California; it is not known to extend into Mexico. It is the largest species of Festuca in the Flora region. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Festuca filiformis is a European species that has been introduced to the Flora region as a turf grass. It grows well on poor, dry soils and is becoming a ruderal weed in some areas. It is particularly common in the northeastern United States and southeastern Canada, but has been reported from scattered locations elsewhere. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 24, p. 410. | FNA vol. 24, p. 424. | ||||||||
Parent taxa | Poaceae > subfam. Pooideae > tribe Poeae > Festuca > subg. Festuca > sect. Breviaristatae | Poaceae > subfam. Pooideae > tribe Poeae > Festuca > subg. Festuca > sect. Festuca | ||||||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||||||
Synonyms | F. tenuifolia, F. capillata | |||||||||
Name authority | Vasey | Pourr. | ||||||||
Web links |