Tall Fescue

This species is a native of C and N Asia and Europe, widely introduced as a pasture grass and naturalized in other temperate countries. The ciliate auricles are characteristic, but the hairs become worn off with age.

The earlier name Festuca elatior Linnaeus (1753) has been formally rejected.

2300-2700m.

Perennial, culms erect, tufted, 40-180 cm tall, unbranched. Blades glabrous, 10-60 cm long, 5-15 mm wide, nerves prominent above; sheath wit narrow crescent auricles at the mouth; auricles usually ciliate on margins; ligules 1-2 mm tall. Panicle 10-30 cm long; branches usually paired, the longer one with more spikelets than the shorter one. Spikelets 3-10-flowered, 8-17 mm long; glumes unequal; the lower 1-nerved, 3-6 mm long, the upper 3-nerved, 5-7 mm long; lemmas 5-nerved, 6-7 mm long, back obtusely keeled, apex muticous or awned, awn straight, 1-4 mm long; paleas as long as lemmas. Anther 3-4(-6) mm long.

Plant tussock forming; shoots intravaginal. Culms robust, 30–100 cm tall, nodes 1–2(–5). Leaf sheaths usually smooth, occasionally scabrid at base; auricles falcate, ciliolate; leaf blades flat, tough, 4–35 cm × 1.5–7 mm, margins scabrid, veins 18, tapering to a fine point; adaxial to abaxial sclerenchyma strands present, abaxial sclerenchyma in narrow discrete strands; ligule 0.5–1 mm, truncate. Panicle loose or contracted, 5–25 cm, many-spiculate; branches 2–10 cm, 1–2 at lower nodes. Spikelets 8–15 mm; florets (2–)3–7; glumes glabrous; lower glume narrowly lanceolate, 3–6 mm; upper glume lanceolate, 4.5–7 mm; rachilla internodes 1.2–1.5 mm; lemmas 6–9 mm, firm except for narrow scarious scabrid margins, apex notched; awns 0.3–0.8(–5) mm; palea keels scaberulous. Anthers 2.7–3.7 mm. Ovary apex glabrous. Fl. and fr. Jun–Sep.

Tufted or densely tufted perennial without rhizomes; culms 45-200cm high, usually erect, stout to robust. Leaf-blades flat, prominently ribbed above, up to 60cm long, 3-12 mm wide, scabrid except sometimes below; ligule up to 2mm long, with prominent falcate auricles ciliate (though often sparsely so) on the edge. Panicle lanceolate to ovate, 10-50 cm long, erect or nodding, loose and open or ± contracted, the branches scabrid. Spikelets 4-5-flowered, 10-18 mm long (excluding the awns); lower glume 3-6 mm long, 1-nerved; upper glume 4.5-7mm long, 3-nerved; lemmas lanceolate in side-view, 6-9mm long, minutely scaberulous, awnless or with an awn 1-3(-4)mm long; palea scabrid along the keels: anthers 3-4mm long; ovary glabrous.

Native to Eurasian , and naturalized in Japan, Korea, China, and North and South America.

Xinjiang; cultivated and adventive in Gansu, Hubei, Jiangxi, Nei Mongol, Qinghai, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Taiwan, Yunnan, Zhejiang, NE China [Russia; Europe, North America].

Distribution: Pakistan (Baluchistan); Europe, temperate Asia and North Africa; introduced in North America.

Fl. & Fr. Per.: May-July.

Valleys, under shrubs, along forest margins; 700–1200 m.

Festuca elatior auct. non L.: Kuo, Taiwania 24: 22. 1979.
Festuca elatior L. subsp. arundinacea (Schreb.) Hackel, Monogr, Festuc. Eur. 152. 1882; Koyama, Grass. Jap. Neighb. Reg.79. 1987.