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GrassBase - The Online World Grass Flora
Descriptions
W.D. Clayton, M. Vorontsova, K.T. Harman & H. Williamson
© Copyright The Board of Trustees, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
Festuca trachyphylla
HABIT Perennial; caespitose. Butt sheaths persistent and investing base of culm; with compacted dead sheaths. Basal innovations intravaginal. Culms 30–75 cm long. Culm-internodes antrorsely scabrous. Leaf-sheaths open for most of their length; with 0 of their length closed; with flat margins; pubescent. Leaf-sheath auricles erect; obtuse. Ligule an eciliate membrane; 0.5 mm long. Leaf-blades filiform; conduplicate; elliptic in section; 0.6–1.1 mm wide; without exudate, or pruinose. Leaf-blade venation comprising 7 vascular bundles; with 5–7 inner ridges; with 3 subepidermal sclerenchyma strands; with subepidermal sclerenchyma free from veins; without layer of subepidermal sclerenchyma masking vein striation, or with sclerenchyma strands widened to form a discontinuous subepidermal layer, or with unevenly thickened subepidermal sclerenchyma layer on the underside. Leaf-blade surface scabrous; glabrous, or pubescent; hairy on both sides.
INFLORESCENCE Inflorescence a panicle.
Panicle open; interrupted; 4.5–13 cm long. Panicle branches scabrous.
Spikelets solitary. Fertile spikelets pedicelled.
FERTILE SPIKELETS Spikelets comprising 4–8 fertile florets; with diminished florets at the apex. Spikelets oblong; laterally compressed; 7–7.5 mm long; breaking up at maturity; disarticulating below each fertile floret. Rhachilla internodes obscured by lemmas.
GLUMES Glumes persistent; similar; shorter than spikelet. Lower glume lanceolate; chartaceous; without keels; 1 -veined. Lower glume lateral veins absent. Lower glume apex acute. Upper glume lanceolate; 3.5–4.5 mm long; 0.8–0.9 length of adjacent fertile lemma; chartaceous; without keels; 3 -veined. Upper glume apex acute.
FLORETS Fertile lemma lanceolate; 4.2–4.9 mm long; chartaceous; glaucous; without keel; 5 -veined. Lemma surface glabrous, or pubescent. Lemma apex acute; awned; 1 -awned. Principal lemma awn 2–2.5 mm long overall. Palea 2 -veined. Apical sterile florets resembling fertile though underdeveloped.
FLOWER Lodicules 2. Anthers 3. Ovary glabrous.
FRUIT Caryopsis with adherent pericarp; ellipsoid. Hilum linear. Disseminule comprising a caryopsis and palea.
DISTRIBUTION Europe: northern, central, southwestern, and eastern.
NOTES Poeae. Fl Eur 1995.
Please cite this publication as detailed in How to Cite Version: 3rd February 2016.
