Festuca obtusa Spreng.
Nodding Fescue


Habit: 		Erect perennial, usually tufted, rather dark-green plant.
Culms: 		40-100 cm. tall, solitary of few in a tuft.
Blades: 	Flat, 10-30 cm. long, 4-7 mm. wide, rough above.
Sheaths: 	Much shorter than the internodes, glabrous or pubescent.
Ligule: 	Very short.
Inflorescence: 	Panicle 10-25 cm. long, very loose, and more or less nodding, branches
		spikelet-bearing near the ends.
Spikelets: 	4-7 mm. long, 3-5 flowered; the flowers perfect or the upper ones staminate,
		the rachilla articulates between the flowers.
Glumes: 	2, firm, scabrous on the keel, the first 1-nerved, 2.5-3 mm. long, the second
		3-nerved, 3.5-4 mm. long.
Lemmas: 	Firm, rather swollen, about 4 mm. long, obtuse or acutish, the nerves obscure.
Palea: 		A little shorter than the lemma, 2-keeled.
Fruit: 		Grain.
Habitat: 	Low or rocky woods.  June-August.
Kansas Range:	East two fifths.