GRASSES OF OHIO 
275 
2. Melica L. Melic-grass. 
Perennial grasses with simple stems, and rather large spikelets 
in narrow panicles. Spikelets 2-several-fIowered, often secund; 
rachilla extended beyond the normal flowers and usually bearing 
2-3 club-shaped or hooded glumes, convolute around each other; 
empty glumes large, unequal, membranous, 3-5-nerved; lemmas 
7-13-nerved, sometimes awned, the margins more or less scarious; 
palets broad, 2-keeled; grain free. 
1. Melica nitens Nutt. Tall Melic-grass. An erect simple 
smooth and glabrous grass with hollow stems, 2-4 ft. high, and an 
elongated open panicle with short spreading or ascending branches. 
Spikelets numerous, usually more or less secund, nodding, on flex- 
uous pedicels, usually with 3 perfect flowers; lemmas scabrous, acute. 
In rocky woods and open places. May, June. Erie County. 
3. Festuca L. Fescue-grass. 
Perennials or annuals with flat or convolute leaf-blades and ter¬ 
minal panicles. Spikelets 2-many-flowered; empty glumes unequal, 
narrow, acute, keeled, the outer 1-nerved, the inner 3-nerved; lemma 
narrow, rounded on the back, 5-neryed, usually awned at the apex; 
palet usually about as long as the lemma; styles very short, stigmas 
plumose. 
1. Leaves flat_ over in. wide; lemma awnless; perennial. 2 
1. Leaves setaceous, usually involute or folded, less than in. wide. 4 
2. Panicle narrow, with short erect branches; spikelets 5-10-flowered; lemma 
usually in. or more long. F. elatior. 
2. Panicle with long, spreading or ascending branches; spikelets 3-6-flowered; 
lemma less than y in. long. 3 
3. Spikelets broadly obovate; panicle branches spikelet-bearing from or below 
the middle. F. shortii. 
3. Spikelets lanceolate; branches of the panicle elongated, the spikelets loosely 
scattered at the ends. F. nutans. 
4. Lemma awnless or short-awned; perennial; stamens 3. 5 
4. Lemma long-awned; annual; stamen usually 1. 6 
5. Lemma short-awned; leaves setaceous. F. ovina. 
5. Lemma awnless; leaves capillary. F. capillata. 
6. Outer empty glume more than Yi as long as the inner; awn not longer than 
the body of the lemma. F. octoHora. 
6. Outer empty glume less than as long as the inner; awn of the lemma longer 
than its body. F. myuros. 
1. Festuca elatior L. Tall Fescue-grass. A loosely tufted per¬ 
ennial, 2-5 ft. high, often with short creeping rhizomes. Spikelets 
broadly obovate when mature, 3-6-flowered, on erect contracted 
panicles whose branches are spikelet-bearing nearly to the base; 
lemma oblong-lanceolate, scabrous at the summit, faintly 5-nerved, 
acute or rarely short-awned. 
In meadows and waste places. Cultivated for hay. Also called 
