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Lolium giganteum

(Giant Fescue)

Overview

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Endangered
Threat status

Common Names

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Common Names in English:

Giant Fescue

Description

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Family Poaceae

Annual or perennial herbs, or tall woody bamboos . Flowering stems (culms ) jointed , internodes hollow or solid; branches arising singly from nodes and subtended by a leaf sheath and 2-keeled prophyll, often fascicled in bamboos. Leaves arranged alternately in 2 ranks , differentiated into sheath, blade , and an adaxial erect appendage at sheath/blade junction (ligule) ; leaf sheath surrounding and supporting culm-internode, split to base or infrequently tubular with partially or completely fused margins , modified with reduced blade in bamboos (culm sheaths) ; leaf blades divergent, usually long, narrow and flat, but varying from inrolled and filiform to ovate , veins parallel, sometimes with cross-connecting veinlets (especially in bamboos) ; ligule membranous or a line of hairs . Inflorescence terminal or axillary , an open, contracted , or spikelike panicle, or composed of lax to spikelike racemes arranged along an elongate central axis, or digitate, paired , or occasionally solitary; axillary inflorescences often many, subtended by spatheoles (specialized bladeless leaf sheaths) and gathered into a leafy compound panicle; spikelets often aggregated into complex clusters in bamboos. Spikelets composed of distichous bracts arranged along a slender axis (rachilla) ; typically 2 lowest bracts (glumes ) empty, subtending 1 to many florets ; glumes often poorly differentiated from accompanying bracts in bamboos. Florets composed of 2 opposing bracts enclosing a single small flower, outer bract (lemma) clasping the more delicate, usually 2-keeled inner bract (palea) ; base of floret often with thickened prolongation articulated with rachilla (callus) ; lemma often with apical or dorsal bristle (awn ), glumes also sometimes awned . Flowers bisexual or unisexual ; lodicules (small scales representing perianth) 2, rarely 3 or absent, 3 to many in bamboos, hyaline or fleshy ; stamens 3 rarely 1, 2, 6, or more in some bamboos, hypogynous, filaments capillary , anthers versatile; ovary 1-celled, styles (1 or) 2(rarely 3), free or united at base, topped by feathery stigmas, exserted from sides or apex of floret. Fruit normally a dry indehiscent caryopsis with thin pericarp firmly adherent to seed, pericarp rarely free, fleshy in some bamboos; embryo small or large; hilum punctate to linear .

About 700 genera and 11,000 species: widely distributed in all regions of the world.[1]

Physical Description

Habit: Graminoid

Biology

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Reproduction

Duration: Perennial

Taxonomy

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Unambiguous Synonyms

  1. Bromus giganteus L.
  2. Festuca gigantea (L.) Vill.

Notes

An accepted name in the RHS Horticultural Database.

Name Status: Accepted Name. Latest taxonomic scrutiny: 15-Mar-2000

Place of publication : Novon 3:241. 1993

Name verified on 04-Dec-2002 by ARS Systematic Botanists. Last updated: 11-Feb-2007

Similar Species

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Members of the genus Lolium

ZipcodeZoo has pages for 132 species, subspecies, varieties, forms, and cultivars in this genus. Here are just 100 of them:

L. aechicum · L. aegyptiacum · L. agreste · L. album · L. ambiguum · L. annuum · L. appenninum · L. arenarium · L. aristatum · L. arundinaceum (Lolium Arundinaceum) · L. arvense · L. aschersoniana · L. asperum · L. berteronianum · L. boucheanum · L. brasilianum · L. bromoides · L. canadense · L. canariense (Canary Islands Ryegrass) · L. cechicum · L. coelorachis · L. complanatum · L. compositum · L. compressum · L. crassiculme · L. cristatum · L. cuneatum · L. cylindricum · L. decipiens · L. distachyum · L. dorei · L. edwardii · L. elegans · L. elongatum · L. felix · L. festuca · L. festucaceum · L. festucoides · L. flagellare · L. gaudini · L. giganteum (Giant Fescue) · L. glumosum · L. gmelini · L. gracile · L. grandispicum · L. gussonei · L. halleri · L. hubbardii · L. humile · L. husnoti · L. hybrid · L. hybridum (Short-Rotation Ryegrass) · L. 'Hymer' · L. infelix · L. italicum · L. italicum var. muticum · L. jechelianum · L. latum · L. lepturoide · L. lepturoides · L. lesdaini · L. linicola · L. linicolum · L. loliaceum · L. longiglume · L. lowei · L. lucidum · L. macilentum · L. marschallii · L. maximum · L. mazzettianum · L. multiflorum · L. multiflorum italicum · L. multiflorus · L. oechicum · L. osiridis · L. parabolicae · L. parenne · L. perene · L. perenne (Perennial Rye Grass) · L. perennem · L. perenne aristatum · L. perenne cristatum · L. perenne 'Literra' · L. perenne multiflorum (Perennial Rye Grass) · L. perenne rigidum · L. perenne perenne · L. perenne var. brasilianum · L. perenne var. italicum · L. perenne var. perenne · L. perenne x · L. persicum (Persian Rye Grass) · L. phoenice · L. phoenix · L. pratense (Meadow Ryegrass) · L. pratensis · L. remotum · L. remotum schrank · L. repens · L. rigidium

More Info

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Further Reading

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Notes

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Contributors

Data Sources

Accessed through GBIF Data Portal February 28, 2008:

Identifiers

Footnotes

  1. Shou-liang Chen, De-Zhu Li, Guanghua Zhu, Zhenlan Wu, Sheng-lian Lu, Liang Liu, Zheng-ping Wang, Bi-xing Sun, Zheng-de Zhu, Nianhe Xia, Liang-zhi Jia, Zhenhua Guo, Wenli Chen, Xiang Chen, Yang Guangyao, Sylvia M. Phillips, Chris Stapleton, Robert J. Soreng, Susan G. Aiken, Nikolai N. Tzvelev, Paul M. Peterson, Stephen A. Renvoize, Marina V. Olonova & Klaus Ammann "Poaceae". in Flora of China Vol. 22. Published by Science Press (Beijing) and Missouri Botanical Garden Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]
Last Revised: 7/2/2009