Festuca californica |
Festuca subuliflora |
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California fescue |
Coast Range fescue, crinkle-awn fescue |
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Habit | Plants densely cespitose, without rhizomes. | Plants loosely cespitose, without rhizomes. | ||||||||
Culms | 30-150 (200) cm, glabrous or pubescent, sometimes scabrous. |
40-125 cm, glabrous. |
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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, glabrous or pubescent, shredding into fibers; collars glabrous or pubescent; ligules 0.1-0.5 mm; blades 2-6(8) mm wide, flat or loosely convolute, abaxial surfaces glabrous or sparsely pubescent, adaxial surfaces pubescent, veins 13-29, ribs obscure to prominent; abaxial sclerenchyma in strands; adaxial sclerenchyma developed; pillars or girders present at the major veins. |
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Inflorescences | 10-25(30) cm, open, with (1)2(4) branches per node; branches spreading and lax. |
7-20 cm, open, with 1(2) branches per node; branches lax, spreading. |
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Spikelets | 8-18(20) mm, borne towards the ends of the branches, with 3-6(8) florets. |
8-12.5 mm, with (2)3-5 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. |
glabrous, lanceolate to subulate; lower glumes (2)2.5-4 mm; upper glumes 3.5-5.5(6) mm; calluses much longer than wide, pubescent at least basally; lemmas 6-9 mm, lanceolate, puberulent, particularly towards the bases, sometimes slightly scabrous, particularly towards the apices, apices minutely bidentate, awned, awns 10-15 mm, slightly subterminal, flexuous, or kinked; paleas about as long as the lemmas, intercostal region puberulent distally; anthers (2)2.5-4 mm; ovary apices pubescent. |
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2n | = 56. |
= 28. |
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Festuca californica |
Festuca subuliflora |
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Distribution |
CA; OR
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CA; OR; WA; BC
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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 subuliflora grows in shady sites in dry to moist forests, usually below 700 m. Its range extends from southwestern British Columbia to central California. Superficially, it resembles F. subulata (p. 402); it differs in having more elongated and distinctly hairy calluses, and often in having softly pubescent foliage and more strongly ribbed blades. (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. 406. | ||||||||
Parent taxa | Poaceae > subfam. Pooideae > tribe Poeae > Festuca > subg. Festuca > sect. Breviaristatae | Poaceae > subfam. Pooideae > tribe Poeae > Festuca > subg. Subulatae > sect. Subuliflorae | ||||||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||||||
Name authority | Vasey | Scribn. | ||||||||
Web links |
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