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Giant fescue
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Clade:	Tracheophytes
Clade:	Angiosperms
Clade:	Monocots
Clade:	Commelinids
Order:	Poales
Family:	Poaceae
Subfamily:	Pooideae
Genus:	Lolium
Species:	L. giganteum
Binomial name
Lolium giganteum (L.) Darbysh.

Lolium giganteum, giant fescue, is a woodland grass that grows on neutral to base-rich soils, often near streams or other damp places. It is native to Europe and much of Asia and has been introduced to parts of North America.

Most publications have used the names Festuca gigantea or, more recently, Schedonorus giganteus for this species, but DNA studies appear to have settled a long debate that it should be included within the genus Lolium instead.

Description

Giant fescue is a loosely tufted perennial with erect to spreading hollow flowering stems up to about 1.4 m (4 ft) tall (exceptionally up to 165 cm), with purple nodes. They are quite hairless (glabrous), including the leaf sheaths. At the top of the sheath is a short (2 mm) ligule and pointed auricles that can wrap around the stem. The leaf blade is flat, up to about 15 mm wide, and glabrous. The tillers (non-flowering stems) are typically shorter but otherwise similar to the culms.

Flowering typically occurs in late summer, from mid-July until early September, with a loose, nodding open panicle about 40 cm (18 inches) long. The branches are normally in pairs with long stalks below the numerous (up to about 16) spikelet. Each spikelet is 10-17 mm long and has between 4 and 8 bisexual florets and two short, unequal glumes. The lower glume typically has only 1 nerve whereas the upper one has 3. The lemmas have long (up to 22 mm) awns arising from the back just below the tip. Each floret has 3 stamens with anthers about 3 mm long. The fruit is a nut or caryopsis with the seed tightly enclosed by the hardened lemma and palea.

Taxonomy

This species was originally included within the genus Festuca, owing to the similarity of the flowers and inflorescences. However, there has been much debate since 1898 about its relationship to the genus Lolium, largely because of hybridization with Lolium perenne (species in separate genera are far less likely to form hybrids than those within the same genus). Recent DNA studies have shown that it should indeed be considered a ryegrass (Lolium) rather than a fescue (Festuca) because these species are more closely related to each other, despite the fact that ryegrasses have inflorescences of spikes rather than racemes.

Its chromosome number is 2n = 42.

Giant fescue produces fertile hybrids with perennial ryegrass and Italian ryegrass, hence the confusion with its phylogeny and identification.

Habitat and ecology

It is a common plant found especially on heavy, neutral and calcareous soils, in woodland, hedge banks and shady places. It is said to grow best in moist woods.

Nutrition value

Cattle and horses will readily eat its abundant foliage.

Similar species

Festuca altissima is similar but is found in rocky woods, has spikelets which droop much more but are half as long, and ligules 3mm long.

References

1. Cope, Tom; Gray, Alan (2009). Grasses of the British Isles. London: Botanical Society of the British Isles. ISBN 978-0-901158-420.
2. ^ Stace, C.A. (2019). New Flora of the British Isles (4th ed.). Suffolk: C & M Floristics. ISBN 978-1-5272-2630-2.
3. Sell, Peter; Murrell, Gina (1996). Flora of Great Britain and Ireland, vol 5. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-55339-3.
4. Soreng, R.J.; Terrell, E.E. (1997). "Taxonomic notes on Schedonorus, a segregate genus from Festuca or Lolium, with a new nothogenus, x Schedololium, and new combinations". Phytologia. 83 (2): 85–88.
5. Darbyshire, S.J. (1993). "Realignment of Festuca Subgenus Schedonorus with the Genus Lolium (Poaceae)". Novon. 3 (3): 239–243. doi:10.2307/3391460. JSTOR 3391460.
6. Cheng, Y.; Zhou, K.; Humphreys, M.W.; Harper, J.A.; Ma, X.; Zhang, X.; Yan, H.; Huang, L. (2016). "Phylogenetic Relationships in the Festuca-Lolium Complex (Loliinae; Poaceae): New Insights from Chloroplast Sequences". Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution. 4 (89). doi:10.3389/fevo.2016.00089. hdl:2160/44529.
7. Banfi, E.; Galasso, G.; Foggi, B.; Kopecký, D.; Ardenghi, N.M.G. (2017). "From Schedonorus and Micropyropsis to Lolium (Poaceae: Loliinae): new combinations and typifications". Taxon. 66 (3): 708–717. doi:10.12705/663.11 – via Wiley Online Library.
8. page 46, Collins Pocket Guide Grasses Sedeges Rushes and Ferns of Britain and Northern Europe, by R Fitter, A Fitter, A Farrer, published 1995, ISBN 0-00-219136-9
9. page 408, Wild Flowers of Britain and Ireland, by Marjorie Blamey, Richard Fitter, Alastair Fitter, published 2003, ISBN 0-7136-5944-0
10. page 27 The Observers book of Grasses, Sedges and Rushes, by Francis Rose, published 1976, ISBN 0 7232 1533 2

• Pooideae