''Festuca gigantea'', or giant fescue, is a plant species in the grass family,

Poaceae Poaceae () or Gramineae () is a large and nearly ubiquitous family of monocotyledonous flowering plants commonly known as grasses. It includes the cereal grasses, bamboos and the grasses of natural grassland and species cultivated in lawns an ...

. Because this and other members of ''

Festuca ''Festuca'' (fescue) is a genus of flowering plants belonging to the grass family Poaceae (subfamily Pooideae). They are evergreen or herbaceous perennial tufted grasses with a height range of and a cosmopolitan distribution, occurring on every ...

'' subgenus ''Schedonorus'' have more in common morphologically with members of the genus '' Lolium'' than with ''Festuca'' and often produce fertile hybrids with other ''Lolium'' species, ''Festuca gigantea'' has been recently published as ''Lolium giganteum'' and then as ''Schedonorus giganteus'' . Sources vary as to which placement is more acceptable.

Description

This grass can grow up to 2 metres. It is loosely tufted, hairless, and has auricles. It has dark red-purple leaf nodes, and there are six 8–13 mm long

spikelet A spikelet, in botany, describes the typical arrangement of the flowers of grasses, sedges and some other Monocots. Each spikelet has one or more florets. The spikelets are further grouped into panicles or spikes. The part of the spikelet that ...

s. Festuca Gigantea have long awns, forming flowers during the July to August period. It is a common plant found especially on heavy, neutral and calcerous soils, in woodland, hedge banks and shady places. It is said to grow best in moist woods. Festuca gigantea produces fertile hybrids with

perennial ryegrass ''Lolium perenne'', common name perennial ryegrass, English ryegrass, winter ryegrass, or ray grass, is a grass from the family Poaceae. It is native to Europe, Asia and northern Africa, but is widely cultivated and naturalised around the world. ...

and

Italian ryegrass ''Lolium multiflorum'' (Italian rye-grass, annual ryegrass) is a ryegrass native to temperate Europe, though its precise native range is unknown. It is a herbaceous annual, biennial, or perennial grass that is grown for silage, and as a cover ...

, hence the confusion with its phylogeny and identification.

Nutrition value

Cattle and horses will readily eat its abundant foliage.

Similar species

Festuca altissima also known as Wood Fescue, is similar but is found in rocky woods, has spikelets which droop much more but are half as long, and ligules 3mm long.page 27 The Observers book of Grasses, Sedges and Rushes, by Francis Rose, published 1976,

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q159968 gigantea