Festuca gigantea
Giant Fescue ( Festuca gigantea ) ( in the illustration at right)
The giant fescue ( Festuca gigantea ) is a species within the family of grasses ( Poaceae ). This forest grass is widespread in Eurasia and Africa and falls by its size.
Description
The giant fescue is a deciduous, perennial herbaceous plant. It grows horst shaped and forms no foothills. The up to 2 meters high stalks rise from the ground up arching. You are unbranched and have two to five brownish- reddish gefärbete nodes.
The change-constant leaves are divided into leaf sheath and blade. The bare and rough on the edges of leaf sheaths are open and rounded on the back. The uppermost leaf sheath surrounds the stem to the base of the flower spike. The ligule ( ligule ) is up to 2 millimeters long. It is trimmed and bears at the mouth large, the blade pointed claw-like auricles comprehensive. The arched overhanging base and stem leaves are flat, up to 60 centimeters long and 5-15 mm wide. They are above, gray-green and sometimes rough above, dark green, shiny and mostly smooth.
The allseitswendige Rispige inflorescence is up to 40 inches long. The panicle branches are always in pairs on the rough Rispenachse, the shorter usually carries several spikelets. The panicle branches are initially far, almost horizontally from, and later they hang limply over. The easy three-to zehnblütigen spikelets are narrow - lanceolate with a length of 10 to 15 millimeters. The glumes are linear and pointed at a length of about 8 mm. The lemmas broadly lanceolate, with a length of about 9 mm. They are finely rough, rounded on the back and five annoying. They carry up to 20 mm long, straight or slightly wavy awn. The palea are keeled finely rough. The stamens are about 2.5 to 3 millimeters long. The heyday of the giant Schwingels ranges from July to August.
Occurrence
The giant fescue is native to Europe, Asia and Africa.
It grows in moist woods, especially oak, beech and mixed deciduous forests, along forest trails and glades. It prefers moist to wet, nutrient -and base- rich clay soils. It grows mainly along the watercourses in lowland forests, as their Verbandscharakterart he is ( Alno - Ulmion ).