Festuca idahoensis |
Festuca viviparoidea |
|||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
blue bunchgrass, blue fescue, bluebunch fescue, Idaho fescue |
northern fescue, viviparous fescue |
|||||
Habit | Plants densely cespitose, without rhizomes. | Plants loosely or densely cespitose, without rhizomes. | ||||
Culms | 25-85 (100) cm, usually smooth, glabrous, occasionally scabrous below the inflorescences. |
(11)13.5-25(28) cm, smooth and glabrous throughout or sparsely to densely scabrous or puberulent below the inflorescence. |
||||
Sheaths | closed for less than 1/2 their length, smooth or scabrous, rarely pilose, persistent; collars glabrous; ligules 0.2-0.6 mm; blades (0.3)0.5-0.9(1.5) mm in diameter, conduplicate, abaxial surfaces smooth or scabrous, adaxial surfaces scabrous or pubescent, rarely pilose, often glaucous or bluish, veins (3)5(7), ribs (1)3-5, well defined; abaxial sclerenchyma in 5-7 wide, irregular strands; adaxial sclerenchyma absent. |
closed for about 1/2 their length, glabrous or scabrous, stramineous or brownish, persistent or slowly shredding into fibers; collars glabrous; ligules 0.1-0.5 mm; blades 0.5-1 mm in diameter, conduplicate, abaxial surfaces glabrous, smooth or scabrous, adaxial surfaces scabrous, veins 5-7, ribs 3-5, 1 distinct and 2-4 indistinct; abaxial sclerenchyma in 3-7 small strands, covering less than 1/2 the abaxial surface and usually less than twice as wide as high. |
||||
Inflorescences | (5)7-15(20) cm, loosely contracted or open, with 1-2 branches per node; branches usually somewhat spreading at maturity, sometimes erect, rarely reflexed, lower branches with 2+ spikelets. |
(1)3-4.8 cm, contracted, usually panicles, sometimes racemes, erect, with 1-2 branches per node; branches erect, lower branches with (1)2+ spikelets. |
||||
Spikelets | (5.8) 7.5-13.5(19) mm, with (2)4-7(9) florets. |
pseudoviviparous, their length varying with the stage of vegetative proliferation, the glumes and often 1 or 2 adjacent florets more or less normally developed, or only slightly elongated, the distal florets replaced by bracts. |
||||
Glumes | exceeded by the upper florets, ovate-lanceolate to lanceolate, mostly smooth, sometimes scabrous distally; lower glumes 2.4-5(6) mm; upper glumes 3-6(8) mm; lemmas 5-8.5(10) mm, scabrous at the apices, awns (1.5)3-6(7) mm, usually more than 1/2 as long as the lemma bodies; paleas shorter than to about as long as the lemmas, intercostal region scabrous or puberulent distally; anthers 2.4-4.5 mm; ovary apices glabrous. |
lanceolate, glabrous and smooth, sometimes scabrous towards the apices, or puberulent throughout or only towards the apices; lower glumes (2)3-6 mm; upper glumes (2.7)3-7 mm; normal lemmas 3.3-6 mm, mostly smooth or scabrous distally, glabrous or puberulent, awned or unawned, sometimes varying within a panicle, awns to 1 mm; vegetative bracts unawned, leaflike, sometimes with ligules; paleas usually reduced or absent, well-formed paleas about as long as the lemmas, intercostal region scabrous or puberulent distally; anthers usually not developed, well-formed anthers to about 2 mm; ovaries sometimes not developed; ovary apices, when present, glabrous. |
||||
2n | = 28. |
= 49, 56. |
||||
Festuca idahoensis |
Festuca viviparoidea |
|||||
Distribution |
AZ; CA; CO; ID; MT; NM; NV; OR; SD; UT; WA; WY; AB; BC; SK
|
AK; MT; WY; AB; BC; NL; NT; NU; QC; YT; Greenland |
||||
Discussion | Festuca idahoensis grows in grasslands, open forests, and sagebrush meadow communities, mostly east of the Cascade Mountains, from southern British Columbia eastward to southwestern Saskatchewan and southward to central California and New Mexico. It extends up to 3000 m in the southern part of its range. It is often a dominant plant, and provides good forage. The young foliage is particularly palatable. Festuca idahoensis differs from F. arizonica (see previous), with which it is sometimes confused, in its less prominently ribbed blades and glabrous ovary apices. It has frequently been included in F. ovina (p. 422). (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Festuca viviparoidea is circumboreal in distribution. It may consist of hybrids between Festuca baffinensis (p. 432) and F. brachyphylla (p. 428) and/or other species (see under F. frederikseniae, above). It has frequently been included in F. ovina (p. 422). (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
||||
Key |
|
|||||
Source | FNA vol. 24, p. 438. | FNA vol. 24, p. 436. | ||||
Parent taxa | Poaceae > subfam. Pooideae > tribe Poeae > Festuca > subg. Festuca > sect. Festuca | Poaceae > subfam. Pooideae > tribe Poeae > Festuca > subg. Festuca > sect. Festuca | ||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||
Synonyms | F. idahoensis var. oregona | F. vivipara subsp. glabra | ||||
Name authority | Elmer | Krajina ex Pavlick | ||||
Web links |
|