Meadow fescue

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Meadow fescue
Meadow fescue (Festuca pratensis)

Meadow fescue ( Festuca pratensis )

Systematics
Monocots
Commelinids
Order : Sweet grass (Poales)
Family : Sweet grasses (Poaceae)
Genre : Fescue ( festuca )
Type : Meadow fescue
Scientific name
Festuca pratensis
Huds.

The meadow fescue ( Festuca pratensis [ feˈstuːka praːˈteːnsɪs ], syn .: Lolium pratense (Huds.) Darbysh. ), Also known as camel hay, is a meadow grass with a rich variety of shapes belonging to the sweet grass family (Poaceae). It is a widespread, pasture-proof and fodder grass that cattle like to eat in the commercial grassland .

description

The meadow fescue is a perennial upper grass , which forms loose clumps with short rhizomes and hardly tends to form a closed lawn . It reaches heights of growth between 30 and 120 centimeters. Its stalks grow upright to arching. The bare leaf sheaths are open to the base and rounded on the back. Those of the basal leaves are brown and frayed. The dark green leaves are 20 centimeters long and up to 5 millimeters wide. They are limp and narrowed into a fine point. The underside of the leaf is shiny. The base of the blades has pointed auricles . The ligule are comparatively short with less than 1 millimeter.

The flowering period extends from June to July. The inflorescence of the meadow fescue is a one-sided, upright or sometimes slightly overhanging panicle . It reaches a length of up to 15 centimeters and appears more or less contracted. The smaller of the lower panicle branches bears one to three 7- to 8-flowered spikelets . These are narrow-elliptical, light green sometimes tinged with purple. The glumes are lanceolate and truncated. The lemmas are broadly lanceolate, pointed and keeled.

The number of chromosomes is 2n = 14.

The meadow fescue hybridizes with the German ryegrass ( Lolium perenne ) to form the genus bastard ' Gewöhnlicher Schwingel-Lolch ', also called Schweidel (x Festulolium loliaceum (Huds.) P. Fournier ). The name 'Schweidel' is formed from fescue ( Festuca ) and ryegrass ( Lolium ).

Distribution and location

The original range of the grass includes Europe and temperate Asia to Siberia and the Himalayas. It also occurs in the Azores. It was introduced to Southwest Asia, America, Australia, and New Zealand and is now found almost worldwide.

The meadow fescue is very common in Central Europe . It prefers humid, foggy and dewy locations near the coast or in valleys. It occurs up to the montane level and with fertilization by agriculture also penetrates the high Alps . You can find it in meadows and pastures , rarely under trees. It belongs to the fresh to alternately moist plant communities of the grassland ( Molinio-Arrhenatheretea ).

The meadow fescue prefers moist to alternately moist, with strong water movement also moderately wet locations and can be found on fertile and weakly compacted, humus soils such as alluvial soils , clay soils or on meliorated bog soil . Sandy soils are only colonized if they are rich in lime, moist and rich in nutrients. Acid, hot, shallow soils rich in raw humus , on the other hand, are avoided. It is hardy, not sensitive to salt and can withstand prolonged flooding; However, it does not tolerate prolonged drought or strong shade. In the Allgäu Alps, Festuca pratensis subsp. pratensis in Vorarlberg at the mountain station of the Kanzelwandbahn up to 1900 meters above sea level.

Systematics and taxonomy

The meadow fescue ( Festuca pratensis Huds. ) Is also called Lolium pratense (Huds.) Darbysh by some authors . placed in the genus Lolium .

One can distinguish the following subspecies:

  • Festuca pratensis subsp. pratensis (Syn .: Lolium pratense subsp. pratense ): It occurs from Europe to Siberia and the Himalayas and also on the Azores.
  • Festuca pratensis subsp. appenina (De Not.) Hegi (Syn .: Lolium pratense subsp. apenninum (De Not.) Banfi, Bracchi & Galasso , Lolium apenninum (De Not.) Ardenghi & Foggi ): It occurs in Italy and western Greece.

Use and cultivation

The meadow fescue is one of the most valuable forage grasses in the grassland, is suitable for pasture and is eaten by all animals. After sowing, however, it only produces its full yield in the second or third year and, depending on the seed mix or species composition, is easily displaced by fast-growing species ( ryegrass , hogweed , oats ). It is best suited for wet meadows with a long-lived clover- grass mixture with a small amount of ryegrass ( lolium ). It is promoted by wetness, grazing and mowing ; if the nitrogen fertilization is too high, it is displaced by fast-growing species.

literature

  • Ernst Klapp: paperback of grasses. Recognition and determination, location and socialization, evaluation and use. Paul Parey, Berlin, 1983, ISBN 3-489-60810-0 .
  • Heinz Ellenberg : Vegetation of Central Europe with the Alps in an ecological, dynamic and historical perspective (=  UTB for science. Large series . Volume 8104 ). 5th, heavily changed and improved edition. Eugen Ulmer, Stuttgart (Hohenheim) 1996, ISBN 3-8252-8104-3 .
  • Jürke Grau, Bruno P. Kremer, Bodo M. Möseler, Gerhard Rambold, Dagmar Triebel: Grasses. Sweet grasses, sour grasses, rushes and grass-like families in Europe. (= Steinbach's nature guide 19). Mosaik, Munich 1990, ISBN 3-570-03695-2 .
  • Henning Haeupler, Thomas Muer: picture atlas of the fern and flowering plants of Germany . Ed .: Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (=  The fern and flowering plants of Germany . Volume 2 ). Eugen Ulmer, Stuttgart (Hohenheim) 2000, ISBN 3-8001-3364-4 , pp. 663-667 .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Georg August Pritzel , Carl Jessen : The German folk names of plants. New contribution to the German linguistic treasure. Philipp Cohen, Hannover 1882, page 151. ( online ).
  2. ^ Erich Oberdorfer : Plant-sociological excursion flora for Germany and neighboring areas . 8th edition. Stuttgart, Verlag Eugen Ulmer, 2001. ISBN 3-8001-3131-5 . Page 209.
  3. ↑ a b c d e Rafaël Govaerts (ed.): Festuca pratensis. In: World Checklist of Selected Plant Families (WCSP) - The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew . Retrieved November 10, 2016.
  4. ↑ Erhard Dörr, Wolfgang Lippert : Flora of the Allgäu and its surroundings. Volume 1, IHW, Eching 2001, ISBN 3-930167-50-6 , p. 199.

Web links

Commons : Festuca pratensis  - album with pictures, videos and audio files