Relatives
Festuca pratensis Huds. - Meadow fescue.
Taxonomical position.
Family Poaceae Benth. Genera Festuca L.Morphology and biology.
Long-term cereal. Plants friable, thick, stalks reach 30-100 cm in height. Leaves flat, 3-5 mm in width; ligula very short. Panicle 8-18 cm in length, compressed before flowering, mostly straight, with bottom branchlets gathered in groups of 2 (3), the longer of which has 1-4 (6) spikelets, the other having 1-3 spikelets. Spikelets are 8-12 mm in length with 3-8 flowers. The bottom floral scales are lanceolate, 5-7 mm in length, integral, awnless or, in top flowers of spikelet, with awn up to 2 mm in length. Blossoms in May-June. Anemophilous. 2n=14.Distribution.
Occurs throughout the entire European part of the former USSR, the Caucasus, Siberia, the mountains of Central Asia, some areas of the Far East, Western Europe, and Asia Minor.Ecology.
Typical meadow cereal.Use and economic value.
Fodder plant.Literature cited:
Cereals of Ukraine. 1977. Kiev, Nuakova Dumka, 518 pages.Grossheim A.A. 1939. Flora of the Caucasus. Vol. 2. Polypodiaceae - Gramineae. Baku, Publishing house AzFaN, 587 pages.
Kharkevich S.S., ed. 1985. Vascular plants of the Soviet Far East. Vol. 1. The Science, 398 pages.
Malyshev L.I., Peshkova G.A., eds. 1990. Flora of Siberia. Vol. 2. Poaceae (Gramineae.) Novosibirsk: Science, 361 pages.
Malyshev L.I., Peshkova G.A., eds. 1979. Flora of Central Siberia. Vol. 1. Onocleaceae-Saxifragaceae. Novosibirsk: Science, 431 pages.
Tzvelev N.I., ed. 1974. Flora of the Northeast of the European part of the USSR. Vol. 1. Families Polypodiaceae - Gramineae. Leningrad: Science, 275 pages.
Tzvelev N.N. 1976. Cereals of the USSR. Leningrad, Science, 788 pages.