Festuca saximontana
Festuca dasyclada
fétuque des montagnes rocheuses, fétuque des rocheuses, mountain fescue, Rocky Mountain fescue
intermountain fescue, oil shale fescue, open fescue
(5)8-50(60) cm, usually smooth and glabrous, occasionally sparsely scabrous or puberulent below the inflorescence.
20-40(50) cm, erect or somewhat geniculate at the base, densely scabrous or pubescent below the inflorescence;
nodes usually not exposed, culms often breaking at the upper nodes at maturity.
closed for about 1/2 their length, glabrous, smooth or scabrous, usually persistent, rarely slowly shredding into fibers;
collars glabrous;
ligules 0.1-0.5 mm;
blades 0.5-1.2 mm in diameter, conduplicate, abaxial surfaces glabrous or sparsely puberulent, adaxial surfaces scabrous or puberulent, veins 5-7(9), ribs 1-5;
abaxial sclerenchyma in 3-7 strands, sometimes partly confluent or forming a continuous band, usually more than twice as wide as high;
adaxial sclerenchyma absent;
flag leaf blades 0.5-4 cm.
closed for less than 1/2 their length, glabrous, persistent or slowly shredding into fibers;
collars glabrous;
ligules 0.2-0.5 mm;
blades (1)1.2-2.5(3) mm wide, persistent, loosely conduplicate, convolute, or flat, abaxial surfaces glabrous, adaxial surfaces with stiff hairs, veins 7-13, ribs (6)7-13;
abaxial sclerenchyma in strands opposite most of the veins, about as wide as the veins;
adaxial sclerenchyma often present;
pillars or girders sometimes present at the major veins.
(2)3-10(13) cm, contracted, with 1-2 branches per node;
branches usually erect, spreading at anthesis, lower branches with 2+ spikelets.
6-12 cm, open, with 2-4 branches per node;
branches stiffly divaricate, densely scabrous-ciliate on the angles, lower branches with 2+ spikelets;
pedicels stiffly hairy.
(3)4.5-8.8(10) mm, with (2)3-5(7) florets.
5.5-8 mm, with 2(3) florets.
exceeded by the upper florets, ovate-lanceolate to lanceolate, scabrous distally;
lower glumes 1.5-3.5 mm;
upper glumes 2.5-4.8 mm;
lemmas (3)3.4-4(5.6) mm, mostly smooth, often scabrous distally, awns (0.4) 1-2(2.5) mm;
paleas as long as or slightly shorter than the lemmas, intercostal region puberulent distally;
anthers (0.8)1.2-1.7(2) mm;
ovary apices glabrous.
exceeded by the upper florets, lanceolate-acuminate, sparsely scabrous to puberulent;
lower glumes 3.5-5 mm, distinctly shorter than the adjacent lemmas;
upper glumes 5-7 mm;
lemmas 5-7 mm, chartaceous, scabrous or puberulent, minutely bidentate, awned, awns 1.5-3 mm, subterminal;
paleas about as long as or slightly longer than the lemmas, intercostal region scabrous or puberulent distally;
anthers 1.5-2.5 mm;
ovary apices pubescent.
= 42.
= 28.
Festuca saximontana
Festuca dasyclada
Festuca saximontana grows in grasslands, meadows, open forests, and sand dune complexes of the northern plains and boreal, montane, and subalpine regions in the Flora region, extending from Alaska to Greenland, south to southern California, northern Arizona, and New Mexico in the west and to the Great Lakes region in the east. It is also reported from the Russian Far East. Festuca saximontana provides good forage for livestock and wildlife. It is closely related to F. brachyphylla (see previous), and is sometimes included in that species as F. brachyphylla subsp. saximontana (Rydb.) Hulten. It has also frequently been included in F. ovina (p. 422).
The populations which grow in sandy areas around the upper Great Lakes have been named Festuca canadensis E.B. Alexeev; given the great variation in the species, there seems to be little justification for this. Three weakly differentiated taxa have been recognized at the varietal level in North America.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Festuca dasyclada grows on rocky slopes in open forests and shrublands of western Colorado and central and southern Utah. For many years it was known only from the type collection. When the seeds are mature, the panicles break off the culms and are blown over the ground like a tumbleweed, shedding seeds as they travel. This and other unusual features, such as the divaricate branching pattern and hairy pedicels, prompted WA. Weber to place it in the monotypic genus Argillochloa WA. Weber.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
1. Culms 25-50(60) cm tall, usually 3-5 times the height of the vegetative shoot leaves; abaxial surfaces of the blades usually scabrous; abaxial sclerenchyma in 3-5 strands, sometimes partly confluent or forming a continuous band; plants of lowland, montane, or boreal habitats | var. saximontana |
1. Culms (5)8-37 cm tall, usually 2-3 times the height of the vegetative shoot leaves; abaxial surfaces of the blades smooth or scabrous; abaxial sclerenchyma in 5-7 narrow strands; plants of subalpine or lower alpine habitats. | → 2 |
2. Culms (5)8-20(25) cm tall, usually glabrous below the inflorescence; outer vegetative shoot sheaths mostly stramineous; blades with hairs shorter than 0.06 mm on the ribs; lemmas usually scabrous towards the apices and often along the margins | var. purpusiana |
2. Culms 16-37 cm tall, usually sparsely scabrous or pubescent below the inflorescence; outer vegetative shoot sheaths brownish on the lower 1/2; blades with hairs to 0.1 mm on the ribs; lemmas often scabrous on the distal 1/2 | var. robertsiana |
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