Festuca arundinacea
Tube fescue ( Festuca arundinacea )
The tube fescue ( Festuca arundinacea, Festuca elatior var also arundinacea ( Schreber ) Wimmer; Festuca elatior subsp arundinacea ( Schreber ) Hackel, . Lolium arundinaceum ( Schreber ) SJ Darbyshire. ) Belongs to the family of grasses ( Poaceae ).
Features
The fescue is a perennial grass that forms clumps of dark green. More rarely it forms up to ten centimeters long, suckers that grow up outside of the lowest leaf sheaths. The stalks are high 50 to 200 (rarely 250) centimeters. You are bald, rough sometimes under the panicle.
The leaf sheaths are ciliated. The ligule is a membranous hem and one to two millimeters long. The leaf blade is five to twelve ( 18 ) mm wide, (10 ) 20 to 70 inches long, and spread flat. At the bottom it has ciliated ears. The hair of the ears are numerous and individually to approximately 0.5 millimeters long. The spreading - top is rough, the bottom smooth or rough.
The panicle is ten to 30 ( 50) cm tall, erect or hanging loose and unilaterally. The side branches are in pairs at the lowest node, the shorter branch has four to eight, the longer five to 15 spikelets. The spikelets are three-to zehnblütig and 10 to 18 millimeters long. The glumes are unequal, lanceolate pointed and bald. The bottom is einnervig and three to six millimeters long, the top three annoying and 4.5 to 7 millimeters long. The lemmas are five annoying, five to nine millimeters long, lanceolate to oblong, acute or bicuspid. It is rough awnless or with a short awn, membranous and in the upper part. The palea are einnervig and as long as the lemmas.
The dust bags are three to four millimeters long. Bloom time is June to August.
The caryopses are in outline long - elliptical, and bald.
The chromosome number is 2n = 42 usually, the plant is then hexaploid. There are also families with 2n = 28, 56 and 70
Distribution and location
The tube fescue is native to Europe, North Africa and Central and North Asia. In many temperate areas, such as the U.S., he was introduced as a crop.
It grows mainly in wetlands and in creep and kick lawn, but also in lowland forests, on the banks and roadsides. He settled the planar to the upper montane altitudinal zone. In the Alps, it rises to around 1460 meters. Phytosociological he is a Kennart of associations Potentillo - Festucetum arundinaceae Nordh. 1940 and Dactylo - Festucetum arundinaceae Tx. In 1950, the main occurrence is of the order Molinietalia caeruleae W.Koch 1926.
The tube fescue populated traffic jams and sickernasse, nutrient -and base- rich, neutral to moderately acidic soils, humic, sandy or clay soils pure ( Rohauböden ) are. It prefers limestone soils. It shows soil compaction and oxygen depletion in the soil, as well as waterlogging. He is resistant to flooding and a light plant.
System
The tube fescue is counted for species group of the Meadow Schwingels.
We distinguish several subspecies, two of which are native in Central Europe:
- F. arundinacea subsp. arundinacea: The lemmas are awnless, rarely has a 0.5 millimeter long Grannenspitzen. In Germany it is found mainly in the West.
- F. arundinacea subsp. orientalis ( Hackel ) Tzvelev: She has aristate lemmas, and the awn of the upper flower is 0.8 to four millimeters long. In Germany it occurs mainly in the eastern regions.
The others are:
- Festuca arundinacea subsp. atlantigena
- Festuca arundinacea subsp. cirtensis
- Festuca arundinacea subsp. Fenas
- Festuca arundinacea subsp. uechtritziana
Use and cultivation
The tube fescue is considered a mittelwertiges forage grass. There are three varieties for animal feed and 16 varieties of grass. He is not particularly sophisticated, but responds very well to fertilizer. Against flooding and siltation in the summer it is insensitive. When grazing he is shunned by cattle and then spreads out. He is eaten on pastures Only very young. By Bültenwuchs he devalued the turf. In earlier mowing the pipe fescue is a coarse, mittelwertiges Heugras.
By breeding efforts in recent years, there are now some new varieties that are spurned due to their delicate leaves from the cattle any more. These new " fine-leaved fescue " varieties combine the good growth characteristics with a high feed value for livestock feeding. Tall fescue ( Festuca arundinacea ) is very profitable and less demanding to soil and water supply. Fescue preferred alternating wet conditions, but tolerates periods of drought and cold very well. He has a very strong root system compared to other forage grasses. This he can impress with temporary water shortage hardly remain long green and is less susceptible to disease. Its growth is very balanced in the summer. After sowing, the fescue developed rather slowly, he has but once established, it is very competitive and persistent.
Just as pasture could be used instead of ryegrass or meadow fescue Schwingels of thanks to these characteristics perfectly.
Outside of Central Europe ( Mediterranean, overseas ) there are cultivars that are appreciated due to the long green staying in cold and drought.
For use in the grassland, sclerophyllous old varieties are not recommended, except on cold, wet soils and in pressurized water and flooded areas. However, it is a good soil stabilizer in moist river banks. In highly stressed turf he receiving increasing attention.
In good grassland it is drainage, fights rotational grazing on small paddocks and deep after mowing the pasture.