Festuca pratensis

Last updated

Meadow fescue
Festuca pratensis.jpg
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Monocots
Clade: Commelinids
Order: Poales
Family: Poaceae
Subfamily: Pooideae
Genus: Festuca
Species:
F. pratensis
Binomial name
Festuca pratensis
Synonyms
List

Festuca pratensis, meadow fescue is a perennial species of grass, which is often used as an ornamental in gardens, and is also an important forage crop. It grows in meadows, roadsides, old pastures, and riversides on moist, rich soils, especially on loamy and heavy soils.

Contents

Most publications have used the names Festuca pratensis or, more recently, Schedonorus pratensis for this species, but DNA studies appear to have settled a long debate that it should be included within the genus Lolium instead.

Description

Meadow fescue is a tuft-forming perennial (called a bunchgrass in the US), with erect to spreading hollow flowering stems up to about 1 m (3 ft) tall (exceptionally up to 120 cm) which are quite hairless (glabrous), including the leaf sheaths. At the top of the sheath is a short (1 mm) ligule and pointed auricles that can wrap slightly around the stem. The leaf blade is flat, up to about 8 mm wide, and also glabrous, but rough on the top and the margins. The tillers (non-flowering stems) are typically shorter but otherwise similar to the culms.

The leaf sheath, blade and auricles are glabrous Festuca pratensis s. str. sl12.jpg
The leaf sheath, blade and auricles are glabrous

Flowering typically occurs from June until August, with an erect to slightly nodding open panicle about 30 cm (1 ft) long, which is more-or-less one-sided. The branches are normally in pairs, the shorter of which bears only 1 or 2 spikelets, whereas the larger one has 4 or more. The spikelets are 11-17 mm long and comprise 5-10 (sometimes up to 16) bisexual florets and two short, unequal glumes. The lower glume has only 1 nerve whereas the upper one has up to 3. The lemmas are awnless or just shortly pointed. Each floret has 3 stamens with anthers about 3 mm long. The fruit is a nut or caryopsis with the seed tightly enclosed by the hardened lemma and palea. [1] [2] [3]

Identification

It is most similar to tall fescue, from which it differs by having only 2 spikelets on the smaller branch at the lowest panicle node and not having minute hairs on the auricles.

Taxonomy

This species was originally included within the genus Festuca , owing to the similarity of the flowers and inflorescences. However, there has been much debate since 1898 about its relationship to the genus Lolium , largely because of hybridization with Lolium perenne (species in separate genera are far less likely to form hybrids than those within the same genus). [4] [5] Recent DNA studies have shown that it should indeed be considered a ryegrass (Lolium) rather than a fescue (Festuca) because these species are more closely related to each other, despite the fact that ryegrasses have inflorescences of spikes rather than racemes. [6] [7]

Its chromosome number is 2n = 14. [2]

It hybridises with Lolium perenne to produce the cross now called Lolium × elongatum(Ehrh.) Banfi, Galasso, Foggi, Kopecký & Ardenghi (formerly xFestulolium loliaceum) and with Lolium multiflorum to produce Lolium × subnutans(Holmb.) Banfi, Galasso, Foggi, Kopecký & Ardenghi (formerly xFestulolium braunii).<ref name="Banfi">/

Related Research Articles

<i>Lolium</i> Genus of plants (tufted grasses)

Lolium is a genus of tufted grasses in the bluegrass subfamily (Pooideae). It is often called ryegrass, but this term is sometimes used to refer to grasses in other genera.

<i>Festuca</i> Genus in the grass family Poaceae

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.

<i>Festuca ovina</i> Species of flowering plant

Festuca ovina, sheep's fescue or sheep fescue, is a species of grass. It is sometimes confused with hard fescue.

<i>Lolium perenne</i> Species of plant

Lolium perenne, common name perennial ryegrass, English ryegrass, winter ryegrass, or ray grass, is a grass from the family Poaceae. It is native to Europe, Asia and northern Africa, but is widely cultivated and naturalised around the world.

<i>Tragus</i> (plant) Genus of grasses

Tragus, commonly called bur gras, burr grass or carrot-seed grass, is a genus of plants in the grass family. It is native to Africa, Australia, and Eurasia with several species on islands in the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Oceans plus one species in Argentina.

British NVC community MG6 is one of the mesotrophic grassland communities in the British National Vegetation Classification system. It is one of four such communities associated with well-drained permanent pastures and meadows.

<i>Festuca arundinacea</i> Species of flowering plant

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.

<i>Festuca occidentalis</i> Species of flowering plant

Festuca occidentalis is a species of grass known as western fescue. It is native to much of the northern half of North America and is most widely distributed in the west. It is most often found in forest and woodland habitat. The specific epithet occidentalis is Latin, meaning "western".

<i>Bromus catharticus</i> Species of grass

Bromus catharticus is a species of brome grass known by the common names rescuegrass, grazing brome, prairie grass, and Schrader's bromegrass. The specific epithet catharticus is Latin, meaning cathartic. The common name rescuegrass refers to the ability of the grass to provide forage after harsh droughts or severe winters. The grass has a diploid number of 42.

<i>Festuca vivipara</i> Species of grass

Festuca vivipara, the viviparous sheep's-fescue, is a species of grass native to northern Europe, northern Asia, and subarctic North America. The specific epithet vivipara is Latin, referring to the florets' alteration to leafy tufts. The plant can have a diploid number of 28, 49, 56, or 63, though numbers of 21, 35, and 42 have also been reported.

Hopia obtusa is a species of grass commonly known as vine mesquite. This plant was treated as Panicum obtusum until recently when more molecular and genetic material revealed new information about it. Hopia obtusa is now placed in the monotypic genus Hopia.

<i>Festuca gigantea</i> Species of grass

Festuca gigantea, giant fescue, is a plant species in the grass family, Poaceae.

<i>Melica mutica</i> Species of grass

Melica mutica, the twoflower melicgrass, is a grass species in the family Poaceae that can be found in southeastern United States.

<i>Festuca gautieri</i> Species of grass

Festuca gautieri, commonly known as spiky fescue or bearskin fescue, is a species of flowering plant in the grass family, Poaceae, native to the Pyrenees. It is a commonly cultivated evergreen or semi-evergreen herbaceous perennial, and, as a native to European alpine areas, it is a small, low-growing Festuca suitable for rock gardens. It is first described in 1890.

<i>Festuca psammophila</i> Species of grass

Festuca psammophila is a species of grass which is endemic to Central Europe.

<i>Festuca brachyphylla</i> Species of grass

Festuca brachyphylla, commonly known as alpine fescue or short-leaved fescue, is a grass native to Eurasia, North America, and the Arctic. The grass is used for erosion control and revegetation. The specific epithet brachyphylla means "short-leaved". The grass has a diploid number of 28, 42, or 44. This species was first described in 1827.

Bromus pacificus, the Pacific brome, is a perennial grass native to the Pacific coast of North America. Bromus pacificus has a diploid number of 28.

<i>× Festulolium</i> Nothogenus of Poaceae plants

× Festulolium is a nothogenus of flowering plants in the grass family Poaceae. Naturally occurring hybrids, they are the result of crosses between species of two questionably distinct grass genera, Festuca and Lolium, and the hybrids show phenotypic similarities to both parents. This type of intergeneric hybridization is quite rare, and is indicated by a multiplication symbol before the name. The name Festulolium is an example of a portmanteau word, a combination of the two parents' names.

<i>Bromus racemosus</i> Species of grass in the genus Bromus

Bromus racemosus, the smooth brome or bald brome, is a species of flowering plant in the family Poaceae. It is native to subarctic and temperate Eurasia, and widely introduced elsewhere, including North America, Iceland, the Southern Cone of South America, the Korean Peninsula, Australia, and New Zealand. It grows in alkaline meadows and in waste places.

Festuca alpina, also known as the alphine fescue, is a species of grass in the genus Festuca. It grows in rocky habitats in many of the mountains chains across Europe. in the countries of Austria, Czechoslovakia, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Switzerland and Yugoslavia.

References

  1. Cope, Tom; Gray, Alan (2009). Grasses of the British Isles. London: Botanical Society of the British Isles. ISBN   978-0-901158-420.
  2. 1 2 Stace, C.A. (2019). New Flora of the British Isles (4th ed.). Suffolk: C & M Floristics. ISBN   978-1-5272-2630-2.
  3. Sell, Peter; Murrell, Gina (1996). Flora of Great Britain and Ireland, vol 5. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN   0-521-55339-3.
  4. Soreng, R.J.; Terrell, E.E. (1997). "Taxonomic notes on Schedonorus, a segregate genus from Festuca or Lolium, with a new nothogenus, x Schedololium, and new combinations". Phytologia. 83 (2): 85–88.
  5. Darbyshire, S.J. (1993). "Realignment of Festuca Subgenus Schedonorus with the Genus Lolium (Poaceae)". Novon. 3 (3): 239–243. doi:10.2307/3391460. JSTOR   3391460.
  6. Cheng, Y.; Zhou, K.; Humphreys, M.W.; Harper, J.A.; Ma, X.; Zhang, X.; Yan, H.; Huang, L. (2016). "Phylogenetic Relationships in the Festuca-Lolium Complex (Loliinae; Poaceae): New Insights from Chloroplast Sequences". Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution. 4 (89). doi: 10.3389/fevo.2016.00089 .
  7. Banfi, E.; Galasso, G.; Foggi, B.; Kopecký, D.; Ardenghi, N.M.G. (2017). "From Schedonorus and Micropyropsis to Lolium (Poaceae: Loliinae): new combinations and typifications". Taxon. 66 (3): 708–717. doi:10.12705/663.11 via Wiley Online Library.