Forage is a plant material eaten by grazing livestock. Historically, the term forage has meant only plants eaten by the animals directly as pasture, crop residue, or immature cereal crops, but it is also used more loosely to include similar plants cut for fodder and carried to the animals, especially as hay or silage.
Ornamental grasses are grasses grown as ornamental plants. Ornamental grasses are popular in many colder hardiness zones for their resilience to cold temperatures and aesthetic value throughout fall and winter seasons.
Festuca (fescue) is a genus of flowering plants belonging to the grass family Poaceae. They are evergreen or herbaceous perennial tufted grasses with a height range of 10–200 cm (4–79 in) and a cosmopolitan distribution, occurring on every continent except Antarctica. The genus is closely related to ryegrass (Lolium), and recent evidence from phylogenetic studies using DNA sequencing of plant mitochondrial DNA shows that the genus lacks monophyly. As a result, plant taxonomists have moved several species, including the forage grasses tall fescue and meadow fescue, from the genus Festuca into the genus Lolium, or alternatively into the segregate genus Schedonorus.
Festuca ovina, sheep's fescue or sheep fescue, is a species of grass. It is sometimes confused with hard fescue.
Festuca pratensis, the meadow fescue, is a perennial species of grass, which is often used as an ornamental grass in gardens, and is also an important forage crop.
Festuca altaica, also known as the altai fescue, or the northern rough fescue, is a perennial bunchgrass with a wide native distribution in the Arctic, from central Asia to eastern North America. It was first described in 1829 by Carl Bernhard von Trinius. It is under the synonym F. scabrella, the rough fescue.
Festuca rubra is a species of grass known by the common name red fescue, creeping red fescue or the rush-leaf fescue. It is widespread across much of the Northern Hemisphere and can tolerate many habitats and climates. It is best adapted to well-drained soils in cool, temperate climates; it prefers shadier areas and is often planted for its shade tolerance. Wild animals browse it, but it has not been important for domestic forage due to low productivity and palatability. It is also an ornamental plant for gardens.
Festuca arundinacea (syn., Schedonorus arundinaceus and Lolium arundinaceum) is a species of grass commonly known as tall fescue. It is a cool-season perennial C3 species of bunchgrass native to Europe. It is an important forage grass throughout Europe, and many cultivars have been used in agriculture. It is also an ornamental grass in gardens, and a phytoremediation plant.
Festuca californica is a species of grass known by the common name California fescue.
Festuca idahoensis is a species of grass known by the common names Idaho fescue and blue bunchgrass. It is native to western North America, where it is widespread and common. It can be found in many ecosystems, from shady forests to open plains grasslands.
Tussock grasses or bunch grasses are a group of grass species in the family Poaceae. They usually grow as singular plants in clumps, tufts, hummocks, or bunches, rather than forming a sod or lawn, in meadows, grasslands, and prairies. As perennial plants, most species live more than one season. Tussock grasses are often found as forage in pastures and ornamental grasses in gardens.
Festuca contracta, commonly known as tufted fescue or land tussac, is a species of true grass (Poaceae). It is native to many subantarctic islands in, and the coasts bordering, the Southern Ocean. The specific epithet comes from the Latin contractus, with reference to the inflorescence.
Festuca heterophylla, the various-leaved fescue, is a species of perennial plant from family Poaceae that is native to southern Europe. It is also grows in Asia and in the US states of New York and Virginia.
Festuca longifolia, known in Britain and Ireland as blue fescue, is a species of grass which is native to Channel Islands and Southern Devon. It was described by Auquier in 1977.
Festuca octoflora, also known as Vulpia octoflora, is an annual plant in the grass family (Poaceae). The common name six week fescue is because it supplies about 6 weeks of cattle forage after a rain. Other common names include sixweeks fescue, six-weeks fescue, pullout grass, eight-flower sixweeks grass, or eight-flowered fescue.
Festuca armoricana, the Breton fescue, is a species of grass endemic to Europe. It was first described in 1975 by Kerguélen.
Festuca paniculata is a grass with culms 60–120 cm long, endemic to central, southwestern, and southeastern Europe and northern Africa. It was first described in 1913.
Ingeborg Markgraf-Dannenberg was a Swiss naturalist, botanist, taxonomist, and teacher noted for her work at the Institute for Systematic Botany at the University of Zurich, in particular her work classifying the genus Festuca. She described over 120 species, and the grass Festuca markgrafiae was named in her honor. The standard author abbreviation Markgr.-Dann. is used to indicate this person as the author when citing a botanical name.
Festuca indigesta is a species of grass in the family Poaceae. It is native to Algeria, Corse, France, Ireland, Italy, Morocco, Portugal, and Spain. It is perennial and mainly grows in temperate biomes. It was first described as a species by Pierre Edmond Boissier, and now is published in 1838 as Festuca indigesta.
