Festuca rubra L.

• Authority

  Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.

• Family

  Poaceae

• Scientific Name

  Festuca rubra L.

• Description

  Species Description - Culms glabrous, 3–10 dm, usually loosely tufted, often decumbent at base, frequently rhizomatous; young shoots diverging from the axils and breaking through the base of the sheath; lower sheaths closed and reddish-purple when young, soon disintegrating into loose reddish-brown fibers; blades glabrous, 0.7–2 mm wide, with (3)5 ribs, the sclerenchyma in 7–9(11) discrete strands opposite the veins; infl 5–20 cm, narrow, with ascending branches or in some forms loosely spreading, the lowermost branches (or at least one of them) naked for mostly (4)5 mm below the first pedicel; spikelets 4–7-fld; first glume subulate, 2.6–4.5 mm, the second broader, 3.5–5.5 mm; lemmas 4.8–6.1 mm, the longest awns 1–3 mm; 2n=14, 28, 41, 49, 50, 56, 70. In a wide range of open habitats, widely distributed in n. Europe and in N. Amer., in our range from Que. to Wis., s. to Ga. and Mo.; plants of the coastal region thought to be native, but some or all of the inland forms may be intr. (F. prolifera, a viviparous form with some of the lemmas elongate and foliaceous, occurring from Nf. to the mts. of N. Engl.)

• Common Names

  red fescue