Vulpia octoflora
Vulpia
eight-flower six-weeks grass, pullout grass, six-weeks fescue, six-weeks grass, six-weeks vulpia
annual fescue, fescue
5-60 cm, solitary or loosely tufted, glabrous or pubescent.
5-90 cm, erect or ascending from a decumbent base, usually glabrous.
glabrous or pubescent;
ligules 0.3-1 mm;
blades to 10 cm long, 0.5-1 mm wide, flat or rolled, glabrous or pubescent.
open, usually glabrous;
auricles absent;
ligules usually shorter than 1 mm, membranous, usually truncate, ciliate;
blades flat or rolled, glabrous or pubescent.
1-7(20) cm long, 0.5-1.5 cm wide, with 1-2 branches per node;
branches appressed to spreading.
panicles or racemes, sometimes spikelike, usually with more than 1 spikelet associated with each node;
branches 1-3 per node, appressed or spreading, usually glabrous, scabrous.
4-10(13) mm, with (4)5-11(17) florets;
rachilla internodes 0.5-0.7 mm.
pedicellate, laterally compressed, with 1-11(17) florets, distal florets reduced;
disarticulation above the glumes and beneath the florets, occasionally also at the base of the pedicels.
shorter than the adjacent lemmas, subulate to lanceolate, apices acute to acuminate, unawned or awn-tipped;
lower glumes much shorter than the upper glumes, 1-veined;
upper glumes 3-veined;
rachillas terminating in a reduced floret;
calluses blunt, glabrous;
lemmas membranous, lanceolate, 3-5-veined, veins converging distally, margins involute over the edges of the caryopses, apices entire, acute to acuminate, mucronate or awned;
paleas usually slightly shorter than to equaling the lemmas, sometimes longer;
anthers usually 1, rarely 3 in chasmogamous specimens.
1.7-4.5 mm, 1/2 - 2/3 the length of the upper glumes;
upper glumes 2.5-7.2 mm;
lemmas 2.7-6.5 mm, 5-veined, smooth, scabrous, or pubescent, apices entire, no more pubescent than the bases, awns of the lowermost lemma in each spikelet 0.3-9 mm;
paleas slightly shorter than the lemmas, apices entire or minutely bifid, teeth shorter than 0.2 mm;
anthers 0.3-1.5 mm.
1.7-3.7 mm.
shorter than the lemmas, concealed at maturity, elongate, dorsally compressed, curved in cross section, falling with the lemma and palea.
= 7.
= 14.
Vulpia octoflora
Vulpia
Vulpia octoflora, a widespread native species, tends to be displaced by the introduced Bromus tectorum in the Pacific Northwest. It grows in grasslands, sagebrush, and open woodlands, as well as in disturbed habitats and areas of secondary succession, such as old fields, roadsides, and ditches. Three varieties are recognized here, but their characterization is not completely satisfactory, e.g., plants of the southwestern United States with spikelets in the size range of var. glauca often have densely pubescent lemmas, the distinguishing characteristic of var. birtella.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Vulpia, a genus of 30 species, is most abundant in Europe and the Mediterranean region (Cotton and Stace 1967). The Flora region has three native and three introduced species. Most species, including ours, are weedy, cleistogamous annuals, usually having one anther per floret. Festuca, in which Vulpia is sometimes included, consists of chasmogamous species having three anthers per floret. The two genera are closely related to each other. Sterile hybrids between Vulpia and Festuca, and Vulpia and Lolium, are known.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
1. Spikelets usually 4-6.5 mm long; awn of the lowermost lemma in each spikelet 0.3-3 mm long | var. glauca |
1. Spikelets usually 5.5-13 mm long; awn of the lowermost lemma in each spikelet 2.5-9 mm long. | → 2 |
2. Lemmas scabrous to pubescent | var. hirtella |
2. Lemmas usually smooth, sometimes scabridulous distally and on the margins | var. octoflora |
1. Lower glumes less than 1/2 the length of the upper glumes. | → 2 |
2. Lemmas 5-veined, glabrous except the margins sometimes ciliate; rachilla internodes 0.75-1.9 mm long | V. myuros |
2. Lemmas 3(5)-veined, pubescent or glabrous, the margins ciliate; rachilla internodes 0.4-0.9 mm long | V. ciliata |
1. Lower glumes 1/2 or more the length of the upper glumes. | → 3 |
3. Lemmas 2.5-3.5 mm long, the apices more pubescent than the bases; caryopses 1.5-2.5 mm long | V. sciurea |
3. Lemmas 2.7-9.5 mm long, if pubescent, the apices no more so than the bases but occasionally ciliate; caryopses 1.7-6.5 mm long. | → 4 |
4. Panicle branches 1-2 per node; spikelets with 4-17 florets; rachilla internodes 0.5-0.7 mm long; awn of the lowermost lemma in each spikelet 0.3-9 mm long; caryopses 1.7-3.7 mm long | V. octoflora |
4. Panicle branches solitary; spikelets with 1-8 florets; rachilla internodes 0.6-1.2 mm long; awn of the lowermost lemma in each spikelet 2-20 mm long; caryopses 3.5-6.5 mm long. | → 5 |
5. Panicle branches appressed to erect at maturity, without axillary pulvini; paleas equal to or shorter than the lemmas | V. bromoides |
5. Panicle branches spreading to reflexed at maturity, with axillary pulvini; paleas usually slightly longer than the lemmas | V. microstachys |
- Local floras:
BC, 
CA, 
OR, 
WA - Local Web sites: CalFlora, CalPhotos,
Flora NW, 
Go Botany, 
IL Wildflowers, 
KS Wildflowers, 
LA Plants, 
MD Biodiversity, 
MI Flora, 
MN Wildflowers, 
MO Plants, 
PNW Herbaria 
WildflowerSearch
iNaturalist (observations)
USDA Plants Database- LBJ Wildflower Center
- SEINet
- Plants of the World Online
- Encyclopedia of Life
- Wikipedia
- Google Image Search
- Local floras: OR, WA
- Local Web sites: CalFlora, CalPhotos, Flora NW, IL Wildflowers, KS Wildflowers, LA Plants, MD Biodiversity, MI Flora, MN Wildflowers, MO Plants, PNW Herbaria
- WildflowerSearch
- iNaturalist (observations)
- USDA Plants Database
- LBJ Wildflower Center
- SEINet
- Plants of the World Online
- Encyclopedia of Life
- Wikipedia
- Google Image Search
