Common name
Chewing's Fescue

Derivation
Festuca L., Sp. Pl. 73 (1753); Festuca: Latin for culm, stem or straw; also the name for a weed growing among barley.

nigrescens- from the Latin nigresco (become black). Spikelets black at maturity.

Published in
Encycl. 2: 460 (1788).

Common synonyms
Festuca rubra L. var. commutata Lam.

Habit
Perennial, tufted. Basal leaf sheaths persistent and investing base of culm, with fibrous dead sheaths. Young shoots extravaginal or intravaginal. Culms 27–90 cm tall. Lateral branches simple. Leaf-sheaths tubular for much of their length, with 100% of their length closed, with flat margins, glabrous on surface. Leaf-sheath auricles absent. Ligule an eciliate membrane, 0.2 mm long. Leaf-blades filiform, flat or conduplicate, 5–27 cm long, 0.4–0.9 mm wide, dark green or glaucous. Leaf-blade venation comprising 5–7 vascular bundles, with sclerenchyma strands below nerves or below nerves and above some nerves, with subepidermal sclerenchyma free from nerves. Leaf-blade surface smooth or scabrous.

Inflorescence
Inflorescence compound, a panicle. Panicle open or contracted, secund, 4–14 cm long. Panicle branches scabrous.

Spikelets
Spikelets solitary. Fertile spikelets many flowered, comprising 3–8 fertile florets, with diminished florets at the apex, oblong, laterally compressed, 7–9.5 mm long, breaking up at maturity. Spikelets disarticulating below each fertile floret. Rhachilla internodes obscured by lemmas.

Glumes
Glumes persistent, similar. Lower glume lanceolate, 1.7–4.3 mm long, chartaceous, 1-nerved. Lower glume lateral nerves absent. Lower glume apex acute. Upper glume lanceolate, 2.6–5.2 mm long, 75% of length of adjacent fertile lemma, chartaceous, 3-nerved. Upper glume apex acute.

Florets
Fertile lemma oblong, dorsally compressed, 4.6–6.2 mm long, chartaceous, keeled above, 5-nerved. Lemma midnerve scabrous. Lemma lateral nerves obscure. Lemma apex acute or acuminate, 1-awned. Median (principal) awn 0.6–3 mm long overall. Palea 4.5–5.7 mm long, 2-nerved. Apical sterile florets resembling fertile though underdeveloped. Anthers 3. Grain with adherent pericarp, ellipsoid or oblong. Hilum linear. Disseminule comprising a caryopsis and palea.

Continental Distribution:
Europe, Australasia.

Australian Distribution:
New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania.

New South Wales: Central Coast, South Coast, Southern Tablelands. Victoria: Eastern Highlands. Tasmania: Central Highlands, East Coast, Mt Wellington.

Classification. (GPWG 2001):
Pooideae: Poeae

Notes
Introduced. Usually in drier open habitats on roadsides and in pasture. Flowers Nov.–Jan. Often used as a lawn grass.