Festuca pratensis L. forma subspicata (G.F.W.Mey.)
Asch. & Gräbn. (Finland, Lohja, Seppälä, 1990).
– Image: Harri
Harmaja (scanned from dried specimen).
– This taxon is distinguished from the
more typical morphs of F. pratensis (Poaceae) through: (i)
the culm is strikingly whitish above the junctions of the leaf blades (a
curious character, apparently previously unnoticed), (ii) the inflorescence is a reduced
panicle
that approaches a spike, and (iii) the spikelets are slightly smaller.
The habitat was a field-margin on somewhat calcareous soils,
the plant growing in the same ditch with Carex hartmanii and
C. spicata. In the same summer, another stand
of the taxon was observed near-by
(Lohja, Marttila) in a rather similar habitat. F. pratensis f.
subspicata (syn. F. pratensis f. pseudololiacea Fr.) has been reported from
some places in Finland. It is hardly indigenous in the country but introduced.
The appearance of the inflorescence of this morph recalls
that recent molecular studies have revealed that the broadleaved species of
Festuca are closely related if not congeneric with
Lolium. The present taxon may be worth of a higher taxonomic rank than that of forma.
Created December 3, 2004.