Erect or ascending annual 1-7 dm; blades slender, commonly involute, 0.5-3 mm wide, usually thinly hairy above; infl a contracted, often rather dense panicle or spike-like raceme 3-25 cm, often not fully exserted from the sheath, the branches variously erect to drooping; spikelets 3-7-fld, 5.5-12 mm (excl. awns); florets only loosely imbricate, the rachilla-joints ca 1 mm; glumes thin, glabrous, subulate, the first 1-veined and mostly 0.5-2.5 mm, the second 3-veined, at least twice as long, 2.3-5.5 mm; lowest lemma 4.5-7 mm, usually scabrous above, with an awn 7.5-22 mm; anther usually 1, under 1 mm; grains 3-4.5 mm; 2n=14, 42. Native of Europe, now a widespread weed in temp. and subtrop. regions. (Festuca m.; V. megalura, with ciliate-margined lemmas)
Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.
Cronquist et al. 1977, FNA 2007, Gould 1980, Kearney and Peebles 1969
Common Name: rat-tail fescue Duration: Annual Nativity: Non-Native Lifeform: Graminoid General: Single or loosely tufted annual, with stems 10-75 cm tall, decumbent basally and geniculate at the lower nodes, otherwise erect or ascending, glabrous. Vegetative: Sheaths glabrous, ligules 03-0.5 mm, erose-ciliolate, usually longer on the sides; blades filiform or linear, 2.4-10.5 cm long, 0.5-3 mm wide, usually rolled, occasionally flat, glabrous below, scabrous puberulent above. Inflorescence: Elongate, 3-25 cm long, 0.5-1.5 cm wide, dense panicles or spikelike racemes, branches spreading or appressed to erect, lower branches often remote and enclose in upper sheath; spikelets 5-12 mm, with 3-7 florets, glumes thin, glabrous, extremely unequal, the first sometimes scale-like, very small, 0.5-1.5 mm long, 1-nerved, lanceolate, upper 2.5-5.5 mm; lemmas 4.5-7 mm, 5-veined, usually scabrous distally, glabrous except the margins sometimes ciliate, apices entire, awns 5-15 mm. Ecology: Grows in well-drained, sandy soils and dry disturbed areas below 6,500 ft (1981 m); flowers April-July. Notes: Native to Europe and North Africa, the distinctly uneven glumes distinguish this species. Ethnobotany: Unknown Etymology: Festuca is Latin for grass stalk or straw, while myuros means long and tapering, like a mouse-s tail. Synonyms: Festuca megalura, F. megalura var. hirsuta, F. myuros, Vulpia megalura, V. myuros var. hirsuta, V. myuros var. myuros Editor: SBuckley, 2010