Relatives
Agrostis vinealis Schreb. - Brown Bent.
Synonyms:
Agrostis tenuifolia Bieb., A. syreistschikowii P.Smirn.Taxonomic position.
Family Poaceae Benth. genus Agrostis L.Morphology and biology.
Perennial grass. Numerous culms 20-110 cm tall, less often few, with few cauline leaves. Rhizomes short, with thin rather short subterranean shoots. Leaves convolute setosely, 3-14 cm long, (0.5)1.5-4 mm wide. Radical leaves convolute, 0.5-1.5 mm diameter, greyish-green, long and thin-sharpened, subglabrous on both surfaces, less often weakly scabrous on lower (outer) surface. Ligule short, up to 2 mm long. Panicles 5-20 cm long, before and after flowering condensed or slightly lax, up to 5 cm wide, their branches directed obliquely upward and thin, more or less acutely scabrous almost entirely, rarely subglabrous in lower part. Spikelets 1.5-2.2(2.5) mm long, violet, fulvous-violet or pale green. Glumes about 2 mm long, equal or subequal, lower ones usually slightly longer than upper, acutely scabrous along most of keel, and covered with dense short spinules near apex. Lemma slightly shorter than glumes, 1.25-2 mm long, with more or less geniculate awn rising from the lower third of the lemma back, less often awnless; palea rudimentary. Anthers 0.8-1.3 mm long. Flowers in May - June. Anemophilous. 2n=14, 28.Distribution.
Forest-steppe and steppe zones of the European part of the former USSR, Caucasus, Northern Kazakhstan, West and East Siberia (up to Yenisei); Western Europe, North America (northeast).Ecology.
In steppes and forest-steppes, lower and middle montane zones on dry slopes, in damp subsaline and wet upland meadows, forest glades, steppified forests, sometimes thrives in fallows.Use and economic value.
Forage and lawn grass.References:
Grossheim AA. 1939. Flora of Caucasus. 2nd ed. V.1. 402 p. (In Russian).Shelyag-Sosonko YuR., ed. Grasses of Ukraine. 1977. Kiev: Naukova Dumka. 518 p. (In Russian).
Malyshev LI., Peshkova GA., ed. 1990. Flora of Siberia. V.4. Poaceae (Gramineae). Novosibirsk: Nauka. 361 p. (In Russian).
Tzvelev NN. 1976. Grasses of the Soviet Union. Leningrad: Nauka. 788 p. (In Russian).