MANUAL OF THE GRASSES OF THE UNITED STATES 



75 



Figure 98. — Distribution 

 Festuca rubra. 



of 



29. Festuca rubra L. Red fescue. (Fig. 97.) Culms usually 

 loosely tufted, bent or decumbent at the red- 

 dish or purplish base, occasionally closely 

 tufted, erect to ascending, 40 to 100 cm tall; 

 lower sheaths brown and fibrillose; blades 

 smooth, soft, usually folded or involute ; panicle 

 3 to 20 cm long, usually contracted and narrow, 

 the branches mostly erect or ascending ; spikelets 

 4- to 6-flowered, pale green or glaucous, often 

 purple-tinged ; lemmas 5 to 7 mm long, smooth, 

 or scabrous toward apex, bearing an awn about half as long. % — 



Meadows, hills, bogs, and marshes, 

 in the cooler parts of the northern 

 hemisphere, extending south in the 

 Coast Ranges to Monterey, in the 

 Sierra Nevada to the San Ber- 

 nardino Mountains, in the Rocky 

 Mountains to Colorado, San Fran- 

 cisco Mountains of Arizona, in 

 the Allegheny Mountains and in 

 the Atlantic coastal marshes to 

 Georgia (fig. 98); Eurasia, North 

 Africa. Occasionally used in grass 

 mixtures for pastures in the North- 

 ern States. Festuca rubra var. 

 lanuginosa Mert. and Koch. 

 Lemmas pubescent. 01 — Oregon 

 to Wyoming and northward ; Mich- 

 igan, Vermont to Connecticut; 

 Europe. A proliferous form (F. 

 rubra var. prolifera Piper, F. pro- 

 lifera Fernald) is found in the White 

 Mountains of New Hampshire, in 

 Maine and northward. Festuca 

 rubra var. commutata Gaud. 

 (F. jallax Thuill.) Chewings 

 fescue. A form with more erect 

 culms, producing a firmer sod, commonly cultivated in New Zealand 

 and occasionally in the United States. 91 

 Festuca rubra var. heterophylla (Lam.) 

 Mut. Shade fescue. Densely tufted; basal 

 blades filiform; culm blades flat. 21 Used for 

 lawns in shady places. Europe. 



30. Festuca occidentals Hook. Western 

 fescue. (Fig. 99.) Culms tufted, erect, slen- 

 der, 40 to 100 cm tall; blades mostly basal, slen- 

 der, involute, sulcate, soft, smooth or nearly so; 

 panicle loose, 7 to 20 cm long, often drooping above, the branches soli- 

 tary or in pairs ; spikelets loosely 3- to 5-flowered, 6 to 10 mm long, mostly 



Figure 99.--Fnstw.a occidentalis. 

 spikelet, X 5. (Piper 4908, 



Panicle, 

 Wash.) 



X V 2 ; 



Figure 100.— Distribution of 

 Festuca occidentalis. 



