74 FODDER AND PASTURE PLANTS. 



SHEEP'S FESCUE (Festuca ovina L.) 



Seed, Plate 26, Fig. 19. 



Botanical description: Sheep's Fescue is perennial, forming 

 dense tufts. The stems are numerous and slender, more or less 

 angular, and from eight to twenty-four inches high. They are sur- 

 rounded at their base with numerous secondary shoots, arising from 

 buds within the persisting sheaths of old root leaves. The shoots 

 appear from the mouth of the sheaths, not from their base, as in 

 Red Fescue. For this reason the sheaths are not cut into strips, as in 

 Red Fescue, but are entire, except in their upper part, and the base 

 of the stems is not surrounded by tattered scales and strips. The 

 leaves are very narrow and generally pale green, those of the basal 

 shoots three to four inches long, those of the stem only about an 

 inch. They are rolled up in the bud and persist in this condition 

 even when fully developed. This is the reason why the leaves of 

 Sheep's Fescue always have a bristly appearance. The flowers are 

 in a one-sided panicle, one to four inches long. The branches of the 

 panicle spread during flowering but later become erect so as to give 

 it the appearance of a narrow spike. The spikelets are green, often 

 with a violet tint. Each spikelet contains three or four flowers 

 and each flower is enclosed within two glumes. The outer scale 

 carries a short awn at its top. 



Geographical distribution: Sheep's Fescue is indigenous to 

 the Old World, its range extending from England to Japan and from 

 Spitzbergen and Iceland to North Africa and the Himalayas. It is 

 native to Canada and some parts of the United States; many of the 

 cultivated forms, however, have been introduced from Europe where 

 it has been grown since about 1820. 



Habitat: It grows naturally in any dry locality — in dry pas- 

 tures and sandy fields, on rocks, etc., from the seashore to the Alpine 

 region of the mountains. In Europe it is found eight thousand feet 

 above sea level. 



Cultural conditions: Sheep's Fescue flourishes on dry and 

 sterile ground where most other grasses cannot get a foothold or, if 

 established, perish from drought and lack of nourishment. It 

 endures practically all the hardships of nature without being seriously 

 damaged and recovers quickly after long periods of suffering. Lack 

 of moisture brings it to a standstill; severe drought may make its 



