Common Name: meadow fescue

Duration: Perennial

Nativity: Non-Native

Lifeform: Graminoid

General: Introduced tufted perennial, erect or spreading, stems 30-120 cm high, with a compact panicle having spikelets with 5-14 flowers.

Vegetative: Culms 30-130 cm, with 2-4 nodes; sheaths glabrous; blades 10-25 cm long, 2-7 mm wide, glabrous, flat or sometimes rolled along edges, leaf margin ciliate; ligules <1 mm.

Inflorescence: Panicles 10-25 cm long, branches usually paired, unequal, shorter branch with 1-2 spikelets, longer branch with 2-6 spikelets; spikelets 12-14 mm long, 2-5 mm wide, with 4-10 florets; glumes 2-5 mm long; lemmas 5-8 mm long, usually smooth, unawned; paleas slightly shorter than lemmas; anthers 2-4 mm.

Ecology: Found in many environments, in prairies, meadows, woodland borders, vacant lots, and along roadsides from 600-10,000 ft. (180-3000 m); flowers May-September.

Distribution: Throughout the United States

Notes: Was introduced from Europe and is now widely distributed throughout the United States. Is similar to Festuca arundinacea, and Schedonorus arundinaceus, both of which have ciliate auricles, while E. pratensis has glabrous auricles.

Ethnobotany: Has been used for pasture and hay for livestock, but is now rarely planted for that purpose. Is planted along highways for grass cover and erosion control.

Etymology: Pratensis refers to growing in meadows.

Editor: LKearsley, 2012

Tufted, but often with basally decumbent culms; old sheaths brown, decaying to fibers, culms erect above a geniculate base, 3-12 dm, glabrous; sheaths smooth; blades lax, not evidently ridge-veined, glabrous or scabrous, 3-5(-7) mm wide, dilated at base into conspicuous smooth auricles; infl 1-2.5 dm, erect or nodding at the tip, contracted at least after anthesis, the internodes of the branches less than twice as long as the spikelets; spikelets 10-15 mm, 4-10-fld; first glume subulate, 2.5-4 mm, 1-veined, the second lanceolate, 3.5-5 mm, 3-5-veined, with hyaline margins; larger lemmas 5.5-7 mm, usually glabrous, 5-veined, the tip hyaline, acute, rarely with a short awn to 2 mm; rachilla-joints glossy, smooth or very nearly so; anthers 2-4 mm; 2n mostly = 14. Native of Europe, cult. for forage and established in fields, meadows, and moist soil throughout most of the U.S. and adj. Can. (Schedonorus p.)

Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.

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