Rat's Tail Fescue

Very common and in large clump at roadside in high mountain area in Taiwan.

This species is adventive in most temperate parts of the world. Vulpia alpina L. Liu (Fl. Reipubl. Popularis Sin. 9(2): 405. 2002), based on a single specimen from Xizang (Lhasa), may be simply a depauperate form of this species. The type has not been seen.

Rat’s-tail Fescue is usually found as a weed of cultivation. 1200-3000m.

Culm tufted, 35-70 cm tall, 1-1.5 mm in diameter. Blades 5-15 cm long, 1-2 mm wide, convolute; ligule membranous, truncate, 0.5-1 mm long. Panicle narrow, 10-30 cm long, with several appressed-asending branches. Spikelets 3-7-flowered, 7-10 mm long; glumes chartaceous, unequal; the lower deltoid-lanceolate, 1.5-2 mm long, 1-nerved; the upper narrowly lanceolate, 3-nerved, 5-7 mm long. Floret narrowly lanceolate, with a lg awn, the lowest 6 mm long; lemma chaffy, narrowly lanceolate, 5-nerved, as long as the floret, attenuate and awned at apex, awn straight and 8-15 mm long; palea chaffy, linear-lanceolate, 2-keeled, hispid along the keels.

Culms erect or geniculately ascending, 20–70 cm tall, 3–4-noded, smooth. Leaf sheaths loosely overlapping, shorter or lower longer than internodes, smooth, glabrous; leaf blades involute, 7–11 cm × 1–2 mm, adaxial surface pubescent, abaxial surface smooth; ligule 0.2–0.5 mm, truncate. Panicle linear, 10–20 × 0.5–1 cm, loose to somewhat dense, mostly curved or nodding, base enclosed by uppermost leaf sheath or just exserted from it. Spikelets oblong or wedge-shaped, 8–10 mm (excluding awns), florets 4–7; lower glume minute, 1–3 mm, upper glume linear-lanceolate, 3–8 mm, apex acute; lemmas 5–7 mm, back scabrid, 5-veined, margins scabrid or ciliolate, apex acuminate; awn 1.3–1.8 cm. Stamen 1; anther 0.4–1 mm. Caryopsis reddish brown, ca. 4 mm. Fl. and fr. Apr–Jul. 2n = 42.

Annual, culms 8-65cm high, usually erect. Leaf-blades 2-15cm long, 0.5-3mm wide, rough on the margins, shortly hairy above. Inflorescence a sparingly branched, erect or slightly nodding panicle or a raceme, 5-35cm long, usually partly included in the uppermost leaf-sheath; pedicels up to 2.5mm long, usually not less than 0.6mm. Spikelets 6-10.5mm long (excluding the awns), breaking up at maturity below each fertile floret; most florets fertile, the upper 1-2(-3) gradually reduced and male or sterile. Lower glume 0.4-2.5mm long, a tenth to two-fifths the length of the upper; upper glume 2.5-6.5mm long (including the awn up to 1mm); fertile lemma 4.5-7.5mm long, with an awn usually 1-2 times as long, finely 5-nerved, glabrous or pubescent; anthers 1(-3), 0.4-0.8 (-1.3)mm long, usually included at anthesis.

Native to Europe and W. Asia, now widesprea in the world.

Distribution: Pakistan (Punjab, N.W.F.P., Gilgit & Kashmir); Central and southern Europe and the Mediterranean region eastwards through the Middle East to India and southern USSR; widely introduced in temperate countries.

Fl. & Fr. Per.: April-July.

Mountain slopes, roadsides, especially in sandy places. Anhui, Fujian, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Taiwan, Xizang, Zhejiang [Afghanistan, Bhutan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, S Russia, Tajikistan, Turkestan, Uzbekistan; Africa (N and on mountains), SW Asia, Europe].

Festuca myuros L., Sp. P. 74. 1753; Koyama, Grass. Jap. Neighb. Reg. 83. 1987.

Festuca myuros Linnaeus, Sp. Pl. 1: 74. 1753.