Festuca ovina |
Festuca viviparoidea |
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fétuque des ovins, sheep fescue |
northern fescue, viviparous fescue |
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Habit | Plants densely cespitose, without rhizomes; usually not glaucous. | Plants loosely or densely cespitose, without rhizomes. | ||||
Culms | (10)30-50(70) cm, glabrous, smooth. |
(11)13.5-25(28) cm, smooth and glabrous throughout or sparsely to densely scabrous or puberulent below the inflorescence. |
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Sheaths | closed for about 1/2 their length, glabrous, smooth or scabrous distally, persistent; collars glabrous; ligules shorter than 0.3 mm; blades 0.3-0.7(1.2) mm in diameter, conduplicate, abaxial surfaces smooth or scabrous, adaxial surfaces scabrous, veins 5-7(9), ribs 1-3, indistinct; abaxial sclerenchyma usually a continuous band; 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. |
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Inflorescences | (2)5-10(12) cm, contracted, with 1-2(3) branches per node; branches usually erect, sometimes spreading at anthesis, 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. |
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Spikelets | 4-6(7.3) mm, with 3-6(8) 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. |
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Glumes | exceeded by the upper florets, lanceolate to ovate-lanceolate, mostly smooth and glabrous, sometimes scabrous distally; lower glumes 1-2(3) mm; upper glumes (2.2)2.6-4(4.6) mm; lemmas (2.6)3-4(5) mm, ovate-lanceolate, mostly smooth, sometimes scabrous or hispid near the apices, awns 0.5-2 mm, terminal, sometimes absent; paleas about equal to the lemmas, intercostal region puberulent distally; anthers (1.4)2-2.6 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. |
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2n | = 14, 28. |
= 49, 56. |
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Festuca ovina |
Festuca viviparoidea |
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Distribution |
CA; CT; DE; IL; KY; MA; ME; MO; NH; NJ; NY; OR; RI; SC; UT; VT; WA
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AK; MT; WY; AB; BC; NL; NT; NU; QC; YT; Greenland |
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Discussion | Festuca ovina was introduced from Europe as a turf grass. It is not presently used in the North American seed trade. The sporadic occurrences are mostly from old lawns and cemeteries, or sites seeded for soil stabilization. Festuca ovina used to be interpreted very broadly in North America, including almost any fine-leaved fescue that lacked rhizomes. Consequently, much of the information reported for F. ovina, and many of the specimens identified as such, belong to other species. The only confirmed recent reports are from Ontario (Dore & McNeill 1980); Piatt County, Illinois; and Okanogan County, Washington. Species in this treatment that have frequently been included in F. ovina are F. arizonica (p. 438), F. auriculata (p. 424), F. baffinensis (p. 432), F. brachyphylla (p. 428), F. brevissima (p. 426), F. calligera (p. 437), F. edlundiae (p. 432), F. frederikseniae (p. 436), F. hyperborea (p. 432), F. idahoensis (p. 438), F. lenensis (p. 426), F. minutiflora (p. 434), F. saximontana (p. 430), F. trachyphylla (p. 424), and F. viviparoidea (p. 436). (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.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 24, p. 422. | 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. vivipara subsp. glabra | |||||
Name authority | L. | Krajina ex Pavlick | ||||
Web links |