Festuca paradoxa Desv.
Cluster Fescue

Habit: 		Tufted perennial.
Culms: 		60-120 cm. tall, solitary or a few to a tuft.
Blades: 	12-25 cm. long, 2-6 mm. wide, flat, rough or smooth.
Sheaths:	Much shorter than the internodes, glabrous or short pubescent.
Inflorescence: 	Panicle 7-18 cm. long, more compact than F. obtusa, the branches
		arched-drooping, the spikelets somewhat crowded towards the ends.
Spikelets: 	3-6-flowered, broadly obovate in age, 5-6 mm. long; the flowers perfect
		or the upper ones staminate, the rachilla articulate between the flowers.
Glumes: 	2, firm. unequal, keeled, acute, 2.5-3.5 mm. long, the first mostly
		1-nerved, the second 3-nerved and longer, scabrous especially on the nerves.
Lemmas: 	3.5-4 mm. long, obtuse or subobtuse, obscurely nerved.
Palea: 		A little shorter than the lemma, 2-keeled.
Habitat: 	West prairies, thickets and open woods. July-August.
Kansas Range:	East third.
Synonyms:	Festuca nutans Biehler
		Festuca shortii Kunth ex Wood