Vascular Plants of North Carolina
Section: Common Name: Scientific Name: Family:
Account for Tall Fescue - Lolium arundinaceum   (Schreber) Darbyshire
Members of Poaceae:
Members of Lolium with account distribution info or public map:
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Section 5 » Family Poaceae
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Author(Schreber) Darbyshire
DistributionThroughout the state; likely in every county.

Native to Eurasia; in N.A. widespread in the U.S. and southern Canada.
AbundanceFrequent to usually common throughout.
HabitatIntroduced for forage and roadside seeding; now on roadsides, fields, pastures, meadows, lawn weed, disturbed soil, etc.
PhenologyFlowering and fruiting May-July.
IdentificationTall Fescue grows up to 4 feet tall, sometimes 5 feet. Leaves are relatively sparse, up to a foot long. The inflorescence is long (up to a foot) and rather slender, with short branches; it often leans, over with branches swept towards the ground. The spikelets have 3-6 florets and lack awns. L. pratense is very similar, but has 4-10 florets per spikelet; see Weakley (2018) for other characters.
Taxonomic CommentsSynonyms include Schedonorus arundinaceus (used in FNA) and Festuca arundinacea.

Other Common Name(s)
State RankSE
Global RankGNR
State Status
US Status
USACE-agcp
USACE-emp
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B.A. SorriePiedmont, dry roadside of Wadsworth Road, May 2015. MoorePhoto_non_natural
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