Orange Foxtail

Foodplant / feeds on
Bagous tubulus feeds on Alopecurus aequalis

Orange Fox-tail (so-called from the colour of its anthers) is a common grass of watersides, ditches and shallow water, often forming swards on drying mud. 2000-4500 m.

This is a widespread, semi-aquatic weed of N temperate regions of the world, now introduced to Australia and elsewhere.

East Asian forms tend to have more obvious awns than usual, perhaps due to introgression from Alopecurus longearistatus. Alopecurus amurensis and A. aristulatus are both based on such forms. A form from South America with glabrous glumes has been separated as A. hitchcockii Parodi. A specimen of this species has been found on waste ground in Chengdu, Sichuan.

Annual or short-lived perennial; culms 10-45 cm high, geniculately ascending and sometimes rooting from the lower nodes. Leaf-blades 2-10 cm long, 2-5 mm wide, glabrous; upper sheaths slightly inflated; ligule 2-5 mm long, obtuse. Panicle 1-6.5 cm long, 3-6 mm wide, cylindrical. Spikelets 1.5-3 mm long; glumes obtuse, ± parallel at the tips, connate at the base, wingless, ciliate on the keel, shortly hairy on the sides; lemma as long as or very slightly longer than the glumes, obtuse, the margins connate for a third to half their length; awn not or only slightly exceeding the lemma tip; anthers 0.8-13 mm long.

Annual, loosely tufted. Culms weak, geniculately ascending, occasionally rooting and branching from lower nodes, 15–40 cm tall. Leaf sheaths smooth, glabrous, slightly inflated; leaf blades light green, soft, 3–10 cm, 2–6 mm wide, abaxial surface smooth, glabrous, adaxial surface closely ribbed, scaberulous; ligule 2–5 mm. Panicle narrowly cylindrical, 2–7 cm, pale gray-green. Spikelets elliptic or oblong, 2–3 mm; glumes membranous, smooth, keels ciliate-hispid, lateral veins hispid on lower part, margins connate at base, apices obtuse; lemma equaling or slightly longer than glumes, margins connate below middle, awned from lower 1/4–1/3, apex obtuse; awn included within spikelet or exserted up to 1.2 mm, straight. Anthers orange, 0.5–0.8 mm. Fl. and fr. Apr–Aug. 2n = 14.

Temperate Europe & Asia, N. America.

Distribution: Pakistan (N.W.F.P. & Kashmir); throughout Europe, temperate Asia and North America.

Anhui, Fujian, Guangdong, Guizhou, Hebei, Heilongjiang, Henan, Hubei, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Nei Mongol, Shaanxi, Shandong, Sichuan, Taiwan, Xinjiang, Xizang, Yunnan, Zhejiang [Bhutan, Japan, Kashmir, Kazakhstan, Korea, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Nepal, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan; SW Asia, Europe, North America].

2300-2900 m

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

Irrigation ditches, rice fields, damp grasslands, other wet weedy places; below 3500 m.

Alopecurus aequalis subsp. amurensis (Komarov) Hultén; A. aequalis var. amurensis (Komarov) Ohwi; A. aequalis subsp. aristulatus (Michaux) Tzvelev; A. aequalis var. aristulatus (Michaux) Tzvelev; A. amurensis Komarov; A. aristulatus Michaux; A. geniculatus var. aequalis (Sobolewski) Paunero.

Alopecurus aequalis Sobol. Fl. Petrop. 16. 1799
Alopecurus aristnlatus Michx. Fl. Bor. Am. 1: 43. 1803. (Type from Canada, Michaux.) Alopecurus fulvus Smith, Engl. Bot. pi. 1467. 1805. (Type from England.) Alopecurus subarislalus Pers. Syn. PI. 1: 80. 1805. (Type from Canada.) Alopecurus geniculatus var. natans Wahl. Fl. Lapp. 22. 1812. (Type from Lapland.) Alopecurus geniculatus var. aristulalus Torr. Fl. U. S. 1 : 97. 1823. (Based on A . aristnlatus Michx. I Alopecurus caespitosus Trin. Ic. pi. 241. 1830. (Type from Northwest America, Douglas.) Alopecurus geniculatus var. fulvus Schrad. Linnaea 12:424. 1838. (Based on .4. fulvus Smith ) Alopecurus geniculatus var. robustus Vasey, Bull. Torrey Club 15: 13. 1888. (Type from Vancouver Island, Macoun.) Alopecurus Howellii var. Merrimani Beal, Grasses N. Am. 2: 278. 1896. (Type from Pribilof
Islands, Alaska, "C. H. Merriman" [error for Merriam]. Alopecurus Howellii var. Merriami Beal; J. M. Macoun, in D. S. Jordan, Fur Seals N. Pacif. 3: 573.
1899. (Correction of var. Merrimani Beal.) Alopecurus aristnlatus var. natans Simmons, Ark. Bot. 6 17 : 4. 1907. (Based on .4. geniculatus var.
natans Wahl.) Tozzettia fulva Lunell, Am. Midi. Nat. 4: 216. 1915. (Based on A . fulvus Smith.) Alopecurus aristulatus var. Merriami St. John, Mem. Can. Dep. Mines 126: 42. 1922. (Based on
A. Hoivellii var. Merriami Beal.) Alopecurus aequalis var. natans Fernald, Rhodora 27: 198. 1925. (Based on .4. geniculatus var. natans Wahl.)
Perennial; culms erect or spreading, usually rooting at the nodes, 2or 3-noded, glabrous, 15-60 cm. tall; sheaths glabrous, usually not inflated; ligule truncate, about 3 mm. long; blades slightly scabrous, 1-4 mm. wide, the upper not much reduced; panicles more or less exserted, slender, 2-7 cm. long, about 4 mm. wide; glumes about 2 mm. long, ciliate on the keels, appressed-pubescent on the sides; lemma glabrous, about as long as the glumes, the awn attached below the middle, straight or slightly geniculate, included or exserted about 1 mm.; , anthers about 1 mm. long.
Type locality: Greece.
Distribution: In water and wet places, Greenland to Alaska, and southward to Pennsylvania. Illinois, Kansas, New Mexico, and California; also in Eurasia.

Annuals, Perennials, Terrestrial, not aquatic, Stems nodes swollen or brittle, Stems erect or ascending, Stems geniculate, d ecumbent, or lax, sometimes rooting at nodes, Stems caespitose, tufted, or clustered, Stems terete, round in cross section, or polygonal, Stem internodes hollow, Stems with inflorescence less than 1 m tall, Stems, culms, or scapes exceeding basal leaves, Leaves mostly cauline, Leaves conspicuously 2-ranked, distichous, Leaves sheathing at base, Leaf sheath mostly open, or loose, Leaf sheath smooth, glabrous, Leaf sheath and blade differentiated, Leaf blades linear, Leaf blades 2-10 mm wide, Leaf blades mostly flat, Leaf blades mostly glabrous, Leaf blades scabrous, roughened, or wrinkled, Ligule present, Ligule an unfringed eciliate membrane, Inflorescence terminal, Inflorescence a dense slender spike-like panicle or raceme, branches contracted, Inflorescence solitary, with 1 spike, fascicle, glomerule, head, or cluster per stem or culm, Inflorescence spike linear or cylindric, several times longer than wide, Inflorescence single raceme, fascicle or spike, Flowers bisexu al, Spikelets pedicellate, Spikelets laterally compressed, Spikelet less than 3 mm wide, Spikelets with 1 fertile floret, Spikelets solitary at rachis nodes, Spikelets all alike and fertille, Spikelets bisexual, Spikelets disarticulating below the glumes, Rachilla or pedicel glabrous, Glumes present, empty bracts, Glumes 2 clearly present, Glumes equal or subequal, Glumes equal to or longer than adjacent lemma, Glume margins connate at base, Glumes keeled or winged, Glumes 3 nerved, Lemmas thin, chartaceous, hyaline, cartilaginous, or membranous, Lemma margins connate below, Lemma 5-7 nerved, Lemma glabrous, Lemma body or surface hairy, Lemma apex truncate, rounded, or obtuse, Lemma mucronate, very shortly beaked or awned, less than 1-2 mm, Lemma awn less than 1 cm long, Lemma awn subapical or dorsal, Lemma awns straight or curved to base, Lemma margins thin, lying flat, Lemma straight, Stamens 3, Styles 1, Styles 2-fid, deeply 2-branched, Stigmas 2, Fruit - caryopsis, Caryo psis ellipsoid, longitudinally grooved, hilum long-linear.

Alopecurus aequalis is a common species of grass known as shortawn foxtail or orange foxtail. It is native to much of the temperate Northern Hemisphere from Eurasia to North America. It is most commonly found in areas near fresh water, such as the margins of ponds and ditches.