Summary[
edit] Description: Festuca californica—California fescue. Photo shows glumes, lemmas, and florets. The culms ascend several feet above the tufts. To quote from the Grass Manual on the Web (
herbarium.usu.edu/webmanual/info2.asp?name=Festuca_califo..): Inflorescences 10–25(30) cm, open, with (1)2(4) branches per node; branches spreading and lax. Spikelets 8–18(20) mm, borne towards the ends of the branches, with 3–6(8) florets. Glumes lanceolate, glabrous or sparsely scabrous at the apices; lower glumes (4)4.5–6.7(8) mm; upper glumes (5)6–10 mm; lemmas (7)7.5–11 mm, lanceolate, scabrous, puberulent, sometimes minutely bidentate, acute, usually awned, rarely unawned, awns (1)2–3(4) mm; paleas shorter than to longer than the lemmas, pubescent or glabrous on the margins, intercostal region usually puberulent distally; anthers (3)4–7.5(8.5) mm; ovary apices densely pubescent. 2n = 56. The plant photographed is at Regional Parks Botanic Garden located in Tilden Regional Park near Berkeley, CA. (Note to those who may question the orientation of this photo: Festuca californica is a nodding grass and the photograph displays the more or less horizontal habit of the inflorescence as it appears in nature.). Date: 25 April 2015, 16:37. Source:
2015-04-23-16.00.40 ZS PMax Festuca californica-1. Author:
John Rusk from Berkeley, CA, United States of America. Camera location
37° 53′ 40.28″ N, 122° 14′ 38.25″ W : View all coordinates using:
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Google Earth:
37.894522; -122.243959.