Festuca californica |
Festuca viridula |
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California fescue |
green fescue, green-leaf fescue, mountain bunch fescue, mountain bunch grass |
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Habit | Plants densely cespitose, without rhizomes. | Plants loosely or densely cespitose, without rhizomes. | ||||||||
Culms | 30-150 (200) cm, glabrous or pubescent, sometimes scabrous. |
35-80(100) cm, smooth, glabrous throughout; nodes usually not exposed. |
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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 1/2 their length, usually glabrous, sometimes pubescent, strongly reined, persistent or slowly shredding into fibers; collars glabrous; ligules (0.2)0.3-0.8(1) mm; blades 0.5-1.3 mm in diameter when conduplicate, to 2.5 mm wide when flat, persistent, abaxial surfaces glabrous and smooth, adaxial surfaces scabrous or pubescent, veins 5-9(12), ribs 5-9, blades of the lower cauline leaves usually reduced to stiff horny points, blades of the upper cauline leaves longer and more flexuous; abaxial sclerenchyma in strands about as wide as the adjacent veins; adaxial sclerenchyma developed; pillars and girders often present. |
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Inflorescences | 10-25(30) cm, open, with (1)2(4) branches per node; branches spreading and lax. |
(4)8-15 cm, open or somewhat contracted, with 1-2 branches per node; branches lax, spreading or loosely 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. |
9-15 mm, with (2)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-lanceolate to lanceolate, glabrous, smooth or scabridulous distally; lower glumes (2.4)2.8-5 mm, distinctly shorter than the adjacent lemmas; upper glumes 4.5-7(8.5) mm; lemmas (4.8)6-8.5 mm, lanceolate to ovate-lanceolate, glabrous, smooth or slightly scabrous, apices acute, unawned or awned, awns 0.2-1.5(2) mm; paleas about as long as the lemmas, intercostal region scabrous or puberulent distally; anthers (2)2.5-4(5) mm; ovary apices densely pubescent. |
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2n | = 56. |
= 28. |
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Festuca californica |
Festuca viridula |
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Distribution |
CA; OR
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CA; ID; MT; NV; 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 viridula grows in low alpine and subalpine meadows, forest openings, and open forests, at (900)1500-3000 m, from southern British Columbia east to Montana and south to central California and Nevada. It is highly palatable to livestock, and is an important forage species in some areas. (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. 440. | ||||||||
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 | Vasey | ||||||||
Web links |
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