Festuca altaica

Stout, tufted, glabrous perennial (3-)5-10 dm; lower sheaths long-persistent, 3-8 cm, 3-7 mm wide when folded, many-veined; blades 1.5-3 mm wide, with sclerenchymatous girders connecting the veins to the epidermis on both sides; panicle open or ±contracted, with straight, ±ascending branches; spikelets 4-6-fld, 8-11 mm, the second or both glumes three- fourths to fully as long; first glume 5-8.3 mm, the second 6.5-10.3 mm; lemmas thin with broad scarious margins, the lowest one 6.5-10 mm, the upper ones much reduced; awn 1 mm or less; anthers 3.5-5 mm; ovary-top with at least a few hairs; 2n=28. Prairies, hillsides, and open woods; Asia and nw. Amer., s. to Colo., e. onto the Great Plains, and at scattered stations in n. Mich., Ont., Que., Nf., and Lab. Some infraspecific segregation may be desirable, but the taxonomy is not yet clear. (F. hallii; F. scabrella)

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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