Festuca californica |
Festuca occidentalis |
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California fescue |
western fescue |
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Habit | Plants densely cespitose, without rhizomes. | Plants densely to loosely cespitose, without rhizomes. | ||||||||
Culms | 30-150 (200) cm, glabrous or pubescent, sometimes scabrous. |
(25)40-80(110) cm, glabrous, smooth. |
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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 much less than 1/2 their length, glabrous, somewhat persistent or slowly shredding into fibers; collars glabrous; ligules 0.1-0.4 mm, usually longer at the sides; blades all alike, 0.3-0.7 mm in diameter, conduplicate, abaxial surfaces smooth or scabridulous, veins (3)5, ribs 1-5; abaxial sclerenchyma in 5-7 narrow strands, about as wide as the adjacent veins; adaxial sclerenchyma absent. |
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Inflorescences | 10-25(30) cm, open, with (1)2(4) branches per node; branches spreading and lax. |
(5)10-20 cm, open, with 1-2 branches per node; branches 1-15 cm, lax, widely spreading to reflexed, lower branches usually reflexed at maturity, with 2+ spikelets. |
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Spikelets | 8-18(20) mm, borne towards the ends of the branches, with 3-6(8) florets. |
6-12 mm, with 3-6(7) 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 to ovate-lanceolate, glabrous and smooth or slightly scabrous; lower glumes 2-5 mm; upper glumes 3-6 mm; lemmas (4)4.5-6.5(8) mm, ovate-lanceolate to attenuate, glabrous or finely puberulent, awns 3-12 mm, usually longer than the lemma bodies; paleas slightly shorter than the lemmas, intercostal region scabrous or puberulent distally; anthers (1)1.5-2(3) mm; ovary apices densely pubescent. |
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2n | = 56. |
= 28 [other numbers have been reported for this species, but are probably based on misidentifications]. |
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Festuca californica |
Festuca occidentalis |
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Distribution |
CA; OR
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AK; CA; ID; MI; MT; OR; SD; UT; WA; WI; WY; AB; BC; ON
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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 occidentalis grows in dry to moist, open woodlands, forest openings, and rocky slopes, up to 3100 m. It extends from southern Alaska and northern British Columbia to southwestern Alberta, south to southern California and eastward to Wyoming, and, as a disjunct, around the upper Great Lakes in Ontario, eastern Wisconsin, and Michigan. It is sometimes important as a forage grass, but is usually not sufficiently abundant. (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. 437. | ||||||||
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 | ||||||||||
Name authority | Vasey | Hook. | ||||||||
Web links |
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