Lolium pratense (Huds.) Darbysh.

This grass (Meadow Fescue) was widely cultivated as a pasture grass in the late 1800s and early 1900s and is now found in most temperate parts of the world. It may have been introduced to China at that time.

Meadow Fescue is a valuable grazing and hay grass for rich, moist soils. c. 2000m.

Plant loosely tufted; shoots extravaginal. Culms 30–130 cm tall, nodes 2–4. Leaf sheaths glabrous; auricles falcate, glabrous; leaf blades flat or loosely rolled, 10–25 cm × 2–7 mm, glabrous, veins 18–25; adaxial to abaxial sclerenchyma strands present; ligule 0.2–0.5 mm, margin ciliate. Panicle compact except at anthesis, (6–)10–25 cm; branches usually paired, (3.5–)4–6.5 cm, unequal, longer branch with 4–6 spikelets, shorter branch with 1–3 spikelets. Spikelets 8.5–17 mm; florets (2–)4–12; glumes glabrous or scabrid; lower glume (2–)2.6–4(–4.5) mm; upper glume (3–)3.5–5 mm; rachilla internodes scabrid; lemmas (5–)6–8 mm, smooth or scabrid, apex hyaline, acute, rarely awn–tipped; awns 0–2 mm; palea keels scabrid. Anthers (0.5–)2–4.6 mm. Ovary apex glabrous. 2n = 14, 28, 42, 70.

Loosely to densely tufted perennial without rhizomes; culms 30-120 cm high, erect or spreading, moderately slender to stout. Leaf-blades flat, prominently ribbed above, up to 45 cm long, 3-8 mm wide, glossy beneath, sometimes scaberulous above; ligule up to 1mm long, with prominent glabrous falcate auricles. Panicle lanceolate to ovate, 10-20(-35)cm long, erect or nodding, ± 1-sided, the branches scabrid, Spikelets 5-12-flowered, (8,5-)10-20 mm long; lower glume 2-4mm long, 1-nerved; upper glume 3-5(-7)mm long, 1-3-nerved, lemmas narrowly oblong to lanceolate-oblong in side-view, 6-7mm long, smooth or scaberulous towards the tip, usually awnless; palea scabrid along the keels; anthers 3-4mm long; ovary glabrous.

Distribution: Pakistan (Baluchistan & N.W.F.P.); Europe and Southwest Asia; introduced in North America and elsewhere.

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

Cultivated. Guizhou, Jiangsu, Jilin, Qinghai, Sichuan, Xinjiang, Yunnan [SW Asia, Europe; cultivated North America].

Festuca elatior Linnaeus subsp. pratensis (Hudson) Hackel; F. elatior var. pratensis (Hudson) A. Gray; F. fluitans Linnaeus var. pratensis (Hudson) Hudson; Lolium pratense (Hudson) Darbyshire; Schedonorus pratensis (Hudson) P. Beauvois.

Perennials, Terrestrial, not aquatic, Rhizomes present, 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 basal, below middle of stem, 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 blades linear, Leaf blade auriculate, Leaf blades 2-10 mm wide, Leaf blades mostly flat, Leaf blades mostly glabrous, Ligule present, Ligule an unfringed eciliate membrane, Inflorescence terminal, Inflorescence a contracted panicle, narrowly paniculate, branches appressed or ascending, Inflorescence solitary, with 1 spike, fascicle, glomerule, head, or cluster per stem or culm, Inflorescence branches more than 10 to numerous, Flowers bisexual, Spikelets pedicellate , Spikelets sessile or subsessile, Spikelets laterally compressed, Spikelet less than 3 mm wide, Spikelets with 3-7 florets, Spikelets solitary at rachis nodes, Spikelets all alike and fertille, Spikelets bisexual, Spikelets disarticulating above the glumes, glumes persistent, Spikelets disarticulating beneath or between the florets, Rachilla or pedicel glabrous, Glumes present, empty bracts, Glumes 2 clearly present, Glumes distinctly unequal, Glumes shorter than adjacent lemma, Glumes 1 nerved, Glumes 3 nerved, Lemma similar in texture to glumes, Lemma coriaceous, firmer or thicker in texture than the glumes, Lemma 5-7 nerved, Lemma glabrous, Lemma apex acute or acuminate, Lemma awnless, Lemma margins thin, lying flat, Lemma straight, Palea present, well developed, Palea about equal to lemma, Palea longer than lemma, Palea 2 nerved or 2 keeled, Stamens 3, Styles 2-fid, deeply 2-branched, Stigmas 2, Fruit - caryopsis, Caryopsis ellipsoid, longitudinally grooved, hilum long- linear.