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Distribution Map

© Utah State University

© University of Tennessee Herbarium, Knoxville

© Utah State University

Vegetative Morphology

 
Plants perennial; shortly rhizomatous.
Culms 30-110 cm.
Ligules 1.5-3 mm, obtuse to truncate.
Blades 6-40 cm long, 1.9-8 mm wide.
Upper sheaths not or scarcely inflated.

Reproductive Morphology

 
Panicles 3.5-9 cm long, 6-10 mm wide.
Glumes 4-6 mm, connate 1/5-1/4 their lengths, sides pubescent, keels not winged, finely ciliate.
Lemmas 4-6 mm, connate 1/3 their lengths, glabrous or the keels sometimes ciliate near the tip.
Awns 5-10.5 mm, geniculate, exceeding the lemmas by (1)2.2-5.5 mm.
Anthers 2-4 mm.
Caryopses about 1-1.2 mm.

Chromosome Number(s)

2n = 28, 42

Nativity / Range

Native from temperate northern Eurasia south to North Africa.

Typical Habitat(s)

Poorly to somewhat drained soils in meadows, riverbanks, lakesides, ditches, roadsides and fence rows; widely introduced as a pasture grass; it may also have become established from ballast or imported hay.

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Name/Synonymy Publication Info

Alopecurus pratensis L., Sp. pl. 1:60 (1753). LEC: LINN 82.1; Europe [Cope in C.E. Jarvis, Barrie, D.M. Allan & Reveal, List of Linnaean Generic Names and their Types 17 (1993)].

Alopecurus pratensis var. alpestris Wahlenb., Fl. lapp. 21 (1812); Alopecurus pratensis subsp. alpestris (Wahlenb.) Selander, Acta Phytogeogr. Suec. 28:33 (1950). HOL: UPS; Sweden: Lapland; G. Wahlenberg.

Alopecurus alpinus var. songaricus Schrenk ex Fischer & C.A. Meyer, Enum. pl. nov. [pt. 1] 1 (1841); Alopecurus songaricus (Schrenk ex Fischer & C.A. Meyer) Petrov, Fl. Yakut. 1:147 (1930). LEC: LE; Kazachskaja [Kazakhstan]: Songarei [Dzungarskij] Alatau, banks of the Baksan River; 29 Jun 1840; A.G. Schrenk [Tzvelev, Zlaki SSSR 376 (1976)].

Alopecurus laxiflorus Ovcz. in Kom., Fl. URSS 2:592 (1934). HOL: LE; Tadzikskaja [Tajikistan]: Zeravsanskij Range, along western slopes of Mukh-kua Mountain, humid swales along the spring, 2790 m; 21 Jul 1932; P. Ovczinnikov and A. Slobodov 1417.

Alopecurus seravschanicus Ovcz. in Kom., Fl. URSS 2:593 (1934). HOL: LE; Tadzikskaja [Tajikistan]: Seravschan [Zeravsan], Putkhin Pass, 2700 m; 24 Aug 1892; V.L. Komarov.

Treatment From

W.J. Crins. Alopecurus in Flora of North America, volume 24. In prep. Oxford University Press.

Fact Sheet Developed By

Pedro Oñativia Lake © 2006