Characters as in Glyceria, but the flowering glumes inconspicuously or obsoletely 5-nerved; squamulæ thin and distinct; stigmas sessile and simply plumose; grain compressed, often broadly furrowed.—Mostly saline species; perennial. (Named for Prof. Benedetto Puccinelli, an Italian botanist.)
1. P. marítima, Parl. (Goose-Grass. Sea Spear-Grass.) Root stoloniferous; culms erect, 1–1½° high; leaves involute, acute or pungent; lower branches of the narrow panicle often solitary or in pairs, appressed or more or less spreading; spikelets 3–6´´ long, oblong or linear, 4–9-flowered; flowering glumes rounded at the summit, 1½´´ long. (Glyceria maritima, Wahl. Atropis maritima, Griseb.)—Marshes along the coast; not rare, and somewhat variable in the form of the panicle and size of the glumes. (Eu.)
Var. (?) mìnor, Watson. Culms low and slender, from very slender creeping rootstocks; leaves very narrow and involute; ligule long; panicle short and very narrow; spikelets 2–4-flowered, the flowers 1´´ long or less.—Shore of Mt. Desert Island (E. L. Rand); Labrador (J. A. Allen).—Probably rather a form of the western P. airoides (Poa airoides, Nutt.).
2. P. dístans, Parl. Not stoloniferous; culms rather stout, geniculate below; leaves mostly flat, short; ligule short; lower branches of the panicle in fours or fives, usually more or less naked at base, soon spreading and at length deflexed; spikelets 2–3´´ long, 3–6-flowered; flowering glume truncate-obtuse, ½–1´´ long. (Glyceria distans, Wahl. Atropis distans, Griseb.)—Salt marshes along the coast and on ballast; apparently much rarer than the last, and perhaps not native. (Eu.)
69. FESTÙCA, L. Fescue-grass. ([Pl. 10.])
Spikelets 3–many-flowered, panicled or racemose; the flowers not webby at base. Lower glumes unequal, mostly keeled. Flowering glumes chartaceous or almost coriaceous, roundish (not keeled) on the back, more or less 3–5-nerved, acute, pointed, or often bristle-awned from the tip, rarely blunt; the palet mostly adhering at maturity to the enclosed grain. Stamens 1–3.—Flowers, and often the leaves, rather dry and harsh. (An ancient Latin name of some kind of grass, of uncertain meaning.)
[*] Flowers awl-shaped, bristle-pointed or awned from the tip; panicle contracted.
[+] Annuals or biennials, slender, 5–18´ high; leaves convolute-bristle-form.
F. Myùrus, L. Panicle spike-like, one-sided; spikelets about 5-flowered; lower glumes very unequal; awn much longer than the flowering glume, fully 6´´ in length; stamen 1.—Dry fields, Nantucket, Mass., to Del., and southward. July. (Nat. from Eu.)
1. F. tenélla, Willd. Panicle spike-like, one-sided, or more compound and open; spikelets 7–13-flowered; awn 1–3´´ long or more, usually shorter than or about equalling the glume; stamens 2.—Dry sterile soil, especially southward. June, July.