Meadow fescue | |
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Scientific classification ![]() | |
Kingdom: | Plantae |
Clade: | Tracheophytes |
Clade: | Angiosperms |
Clade: | Monocots |
Clade: | Commelinids |
Order: | Poales |
Family: | Poaceae |
Subfamily: | Pooideae |
Genus: | Lolium |
Species: | L. pratense |
Binomial name | |
Lolium pratense (Huds.) Darbysh. | |
Synonyms | |
Lolium pratense, 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.
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.
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.
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]
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.
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). [7]
Meadow fescue is found in damp grasslands such as water-meadows, pastures and road verges, where it was formerly widely sown as a component of grass-clover seed mixes for improving the productivity of agricultural grasslands. The degree to which it has been planted obscures its natural distribution and has probably extended its range far beyond where it would previously have occurred. [1]
The British National Vegetation Classification lists it as a component of all types of mesotrophic (MG) grasslands but it is not characteristic, or even a constant, in any of them. By contrast, it is not recorded in any calcareous (CG) or acid (U) grasslands. [8] There is some evidence of it occurring in more natural habitats such as M22 blunt-flowered rush and M23 sharp-flowered rush communities by lakes and rivers. [9]
Its Ellenberg values in Britain are L = 7, F = 6, R = 6, N = 6, and S = 1, which show that it favours damp, sunny places with neutral soils and moderate fertility, and that it can occur in slightly brackish situations. [10]
Timothy is an abundant perennial grass native to most of Europe except for the Mediterranean region. It is also known as timothy-grass, meadow cat's-tail or common cat's tail. It is a member of the genus Phleum, consisting of about 15 species of annual and perennial 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.
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.
The mesotrophic grassland communities in the British National Vegetation Classification system were described in Volume 3 of British Plant Communities, first published in 1992, along with the calcicolous grassland communities and the calcifugous grasslands and montane communities.
British NVC community MG12 (Festuca arundinacea grassland) is one of the mesotrophic grassland communities in the British National Vegetation Classification system. It is one of three types of mesotrophic grassland classified as grass-dominated inundation communities.
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.
North Meadow, Cricklade is a hay meadow near the town of Cricklade, in Wiltshire, England. It is 24.6 hectares in size. It is a traditionally managed lowland hay-meadow, or lammas land, and is grazed in common between 12 August and 12 February each year, and cut for hay no earlier than 1 July. This pattern of land use and management has existed for many centuries and has resulted in the species rich grassland flora and fauna present on the site.
Poa trivialis, is a perennial plant regarded in the US as an ornamental plant. It is part of the grass family.
NVC community CG2 is one of the calcicolous grassland communities in the British National Vegetation Classification system. It is one of three short-sward communities associated with heavy grazing, within the lowland calcicolous grassland group, and is regarded as "typical" chalk grassland.
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.
British NVC community MG4 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.
Bromus hordeaceus, the soft brome, is an annual or biennial species of grass in the grass family (Poaceae). It is also known in North America as bull grass, soft cheat, and soft chess.
Briza media is a perennial grass in the family Poaceae and is a species of the genus Briza.
Lolium arundinaceum, tall fescue is a cool-season perennial C3 species of grass which native to Europe. It occurs on woodland margins, in grassland and in coastal marshes. It is also an important forage grass with many cultivars that used in agriculture and is used as an ornamental grass in gardens, and sometimes as a phytoremediation plant.
Lolium giganteum, giant fescue, is a woodland grass that grows on neutral to base-rich soils, often near streams or other damp places. It is native to Europe and much of Asia and has been introduced to parts of North America.
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.
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.
× 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.
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.