Avena fatua L. Wild Oats Habit: Annual. Culms: 30-75 cm. tall, erect, in small tufts, stout, glabrous. Blades: Flat, 10-30 cm. tall, 4-8 (15) mm. wide, numerous, scabrous. Inflorescence: Panicle loose and open, 10-30 cm. long, the slender branches ascending or spreading bearing relatively few, but large spikelets. Spikelets: Usually large, pendulous, usually 3-flowered, the rachilla bearded (hairs normally stiff and brown) below the florets, disarticulating above the glumes and between the florets. Glumes: 2-2.5 cm. long, smooth, membranous, usually exceeding the uppermost florets, smooth, striate, acuminate, subequal, many-nerved. Lemmas: 12-18 mm. long, in the typical form the rachilla and lower part of lemma usually covered with long brown or sometimes whitish hairs; 5-9-nerved, rounded on the back, nerved above, the apex frequently shortly 2-toothed, bearing a dorsal twisted and geniculate awn, 3-4 cm. long, the upper empty ones or those enclosing staminate flowers awnless. Palea: 2-cleft or 2-toothed, narrow. Fruit: Grain deeply furrowed, usually pubescent, often adhering to the lemma and palea. Habitat: Fields and waste places. Kansas Range: Throughout Remarks: Grain field weed. Synonyms: Avena fatua L. var. glabrata Peterm. Avena fatua L. var. vilis (Wallr.) Hausskn. Avena hybrida Peterm. ex Reichenb. p.p.