Festuca paradoxa |
Festuca californica |
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cluster fescue |
California fescue |
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Habit | Plants loosely cespitose, without rhizomes. | Plants densely cespitose, without rhizomes. | ||||||||
Culms | 50-120 cm, glabrous. |
30-150 (200) cm, glabrous or pubescent, sometimes scabrous. |
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Sheaths | closed for less than 1/3 their length, glabrous, shredding into fibers; Iigules (0.2)0.5-1.5 mm; blades 2-8 mm wide, flat or loosely convolute, smooth or scabrous, veins 9-35, ribs obscure; abaxial sclerenchyma in narrow strands; adaxial sclerenchyma developed; girders or pillars usually associated with the major veins. |
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. |
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Inflorescences | (5)10-20 cm, open, with 1-2 branches per node; branches lax, ascending to spreading, spikelets clustered towards the ends of the branches, closely imbricate. |
10-25(30) cm, open, with (1)2(4) branches per node; branches spreading and lax. |
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Spikelets | 4-7(7.5) mm, elliptic to obovate, with 3-5(8) florets. |
8-18(20) mm, borne towards the ends of the branches, with 3-6(8) florets. |
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Glumes | lanceolate to ovate-lanceolate, scabrous at least on the veins; lower glumes (2.5)3-4(5) mm, usually almost as long as the adjacent lemmas; upper glumes (3.5)4-5(5.5) mm; lemmas 4-5(5.2) mm, stiffly chartaceous, ovate to obovate, glabrous, somewhat acute, unawned; paleas as long as or slightly shorter than the lemmas, intercostal region smooth or scabrous distally; anthers (0.7)1-2(2.5) mm; ovary apices pubescent. |
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. |
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2n | = unknown. |
= 56. |
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Festuca paradoxa |
Festuca californica |
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Distribution |
AL; AR; DE; GA; IA; IL; IN; KS; KY; LA; MD; MN; MO; MS; NC; NE; OK; PA; SC; TN; TX; VA; WI; ON; QC
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CA; OR
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Discussion | Festuca paradoxa grows in prairies, open woods, thickets, and low open ground, from Wisconsin to Pennsylvania, south to northeastern Texas and northern Georgia. It resembles F. subverticillata (see previous), but its spikelets are more crowded on the branches. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 24, p. 402. | FNA vol. 24, p. 410. | ||||||||
Parent taxa | Poaceae > subfam. Pooideae > tribe Poeae > Festuca | Poaceae > subfam. Pooideae > tribe Poeae > Festuca > subg. Festuca > sect. Breviaristatae | ||||||||
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Subordinate taxa | ||||||||||
Synonyms | F. shortii | |||||||||
Name authority | Desv. | Vasey | ||||||||
Web links |