Festuca paradoxa |
Festuca viviparoidea |
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cluster fescue |
northern fescue, viviparous fescue |
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Habit | Plants loosely cespitose, without rhizomes. | Plants loosely or densely cespitose, without rhizomes. | ||||
Culms | 50-120 cm, glabrous. |
(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 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 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 | (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. |
(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 | 4-7(7.5) mm, elliptic to obovate, with 3-5(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 | 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 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 | = unknown. |
= 49, 56. |
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Festuca paradoxa |
Festuca viviparoidea |
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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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AK; MT; WY; AB; BC; NL; NT; NU; QC; YT; Greenland |
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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 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. 402. | FNA vol. 24, p. 436. | ||||
Parent taxa | Poaceae > subfam. Pooideae > tribe Poeae > Festuca | Poaceae > subfam. Pooideae > tribe Poeae > Festuca > subg. Festuca > sect. Festuca | ||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||
Synonyms | F. shortii | F. vivipara subsp. glabra | ||||
Name authority | Desv. | Krajina ex Pavlick | ||||
Web links |