Creeping Foxtail

A valuable constituent of alpine pastures between 1700 and 4000 m.

Perennial, loosely tufted, with long, slender rhizomes. Culms sometimes solitary, erect, up to 100 cm tall, 3–5-noded. Leaf sheaths loose, smooth, upper sheaths slightly inflated; leaf blades gray-green, 5–20 cm, 3–8 mm wide, abaxial surface smooth, adaxial surface scabrid; ligule 2–5 mm. Panicle broadly cylindrical, 4–8 cm, gray-green, blackish at maturity. Spikelets narrowly oblong, slightly urn-shaped, 4–6 mm; glumes herbaceous, upper part scabrid, keels densely pilose, glabrous or thinly pilose near margins or more generally on flanks, margins connate in lower 1/5, apices acute, slightly divergent (keel shallowly concave below apex); lemma slightly shorter than glumes, margins connate in lower 1/3–1/2, awned from slightly below middle, apex puberulous, obliquely truncate; awn usually included in spikelet, sometimes exserted up to 2.5 mm, usually straight, weakly geniculate with twisted column when longer. Anthers yellow, 2–3 mm. Fl. and fr. Jul–Sep. 2n = 28.

Perennial; culms 30-110 cm high, erect, not rooting from the nodes. Leaf-blades 6-40 cm long, 4-12 mm wide, glabrous; upper sheaths slightly inflated; ligule 2-5 mm long, obtuse. Panicle 2-9 cm long, 8-13 mm wide, broadly cylindrical. Spikelets 4-6 mm long; glumes acute, slightly to markedly divergent at the tips, connate for a quarter their length, wingless, the keel and nerves covered with silky hairs up to 2 mm long; lemma usually longer than the glumes, sometimes ± equalling them, slightly to markedly obliquely truncate, the margins connate for a third their length; awn exceeding the tip of the lemma by up to 5 mm, but ,often included in the glumes; anthers 2-3.5 mm long.

Gansu, Heilongjiang, Nei Mongol, Ningxia, Qinghai, Xinjiang [Kashmir, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, N Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan; SW Asia, Europe; introduced in North America].

Distribution: Pakistan (Baluchistan, N.W.F.P., Gilgit & Kashmir); Europe and temperate Asia; introduced in North America.

Fl. & Fr. Per.: May-August.

Damp grasslands; 600–3300 m.

Perennials, Terrestrial, not aquatic, Rhizomes present, Rhizome elongate, creeping, stems dista nt, Stems nodes swollen or brittle, Stems erect or ascending, Stems geniculate, decumbent, or lax, sometimes rooting at nodes, Stems caespitose, tufted, or clustered, Stems terete, round in cross section, or polygonal, Stem internodes hollow, Stems with inflorescence less than 1 m tall, Stems with inflorescence 1-2 m tall, Stems, culms, or scapes exceeding basal leaves, Leaves mostly cauline, Leaves conspicuously 2-ranked, distichous, Leaves sheathing at base, Leaf sheath mostly open, or loose, Leaf sheath smooth, glabrous, Leaf sheath and blade differentiated, Leaf sheath enlarged, inflated or distended, Leaf blades linear, Leaf blades 2-10 mm wide, Leaf blades mostly flat, Leaf blades mostly glabrous, Leaf blades scabrous, roughened, or wrinkled, Ligule present, Ligule an unfringed eciliate membrane, Inflorescence terminal, Inflorescence a contracted panicle, narrowly paniculate, branches appressed or ascending, Inflorescence a dense slender spike-like panicle or raceme , branches contracted, Inflorescence solitary, with 1 spike, fascicle, glomerule, head, or cluster per stem or culm, Inflorescence spike linear or cylindric, several times longer than wide, Inflorescence single raceme, fascicle or spike, Flowers bisexual, Spikelets pedicellate, Spikelets laterally compressed, Spikelet less than 3 mm wide, Spikelets with 1 fertile floret, Spikelets solitary at rachis nodes, Spikelets all alike and fertille, Spikelets bisexual, Spikelets disarticulating below the glumes, Rachilla or pedicel glabrous, Glumes present, empty bracts, Glumes 2 clearly present, Glumes equal or subequal, Glumes equal to or longer than adjacent lemma, Glume margins connate at base, Glumes keeled or winged, Glume surface hairy, villous or pilose, Glumes 3 nerved, Lemmas thin, chartaceous, hyaline, cartilaginous, or membranous, Lemma margins connate below, Lemma 5-7 nerved, Lemma glabrous, Lemma body or surface hairy, Lemma apex truncate, rounded, or obtuse, Lemma muc ronate, very shortly beaked or awned, less than 1-2 mm, Lemma distinctly awned, more than 2-3 mm, Lemma with 1 awn, Lemma awn less than 1 cm long, Lemma awn 1-2 cm long, Lemma awn subapical or dorsal, Lemma awns straight or curved to base, Lemma awn once geniculate, bent once, Lemma margins thin, lying flat, Lemma straight, Stamens 3, Styles 1, Styles 2-fid, deeply 2-branched, Stigmas 2, Fruit - caryopsis, Caryopsis ellipsoid, longitudinally grooved, hilum long-linear.

Alopecurus arundinaceus, the creeping meadow foxtail or creeping foxtail, is a rhizomatous perennial species in the Grass family (Poaceae). Native to Eurasia and northern Africa, and widely introduced elsewhere, this sod forming grass is useful as a forage and for erosion control. It grows in damp or saline grasslands and banks of waterways, and on mountains up to 1,200 m. It flowers between April and July, depending on its location.