MANUAL OF THE GRASSES OF THE UNITED STATES 



75 



Figure 98.— Distribution of 

 Festuca rubra. 



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. % — 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 Wlrite 

 Mountains of New Hampshire, in 

 Maine and northward. Festuca 

 rubra var. commutata Gaud. 

 (F. jallax Thuill.) Che wings 

 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. % Used for 



lawns in shady places. Europe. 



30. Festuca occidentalis 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.- -Festuca occidentalis. Panicle, X 

 spikelet, X 5. (Piper 4908, Wash.) 



Figure 100.— Distribution 

 Festuca occidentalis. 



