Festuca arundinacea L. Tall Fescue

Habit: Perennials, loosely tufted, often with short creeping rhizomes. Culms: Smooth, 50-120 cm. tall, erect. Blades: Flat, 10-60 cm. long, 4-8 mm. wide, smooth beneath, scabrous above. Sheaths: Mostly shorter than internodes. Inflorescence: Panicle erect or nodding at the summit, 10-20 cm. long, rather open in anthesis, narrowed in fruit, branches spikelet-bearing nearly to the base. Spikelets: 3-13 flowered, usually 6-8 flowered, 8-12 mm. long; the flowers perfect or the upper ones staminate, the rachilla articulates between the flowers. Glumes: 2, membranous, unequal, keeled, acute, the first mostly 1-nerved, the second 3-nerved, 3 and 4 mm. long. Lemmas: 5-7 mm. long, 3-7-nerved, scabrous toward the apex; rounded on the back, at least below, the scarious apex acute, rarely short-awned. Palea: A little shorter than the lemma, 2-keeled. Flowers: With 3 stamens. Fruit: Grain. Habitat: Meadows, roadsides and waste places. June-August. Kansas Range: East two thirds, west to Sheridan county. Use: A meadow, pasture, and hay grass. Synonyms: Lolium arundinaceum (Schreb.) S.J. Darbyshire Festuca arundinacea Schreb. Festuca elatior L. ssp. arundinacea (Schreb.) Hack. Festuca elatior L. var. arundinacea (Schreb.) C.F.H. Wimmer