ALOPECURUS PRATENSIS
33. A1opecurus pratensis L. MEADOW FOXTAIL.
A slightly stoloniferous, glabrous perennial forming loose tufts of shoots with abundant dark green foliage; thriving best in low-lying clays and loams or soils subject to temporary flooding; often seeded in meadows and pastures.
Leaves rolled in the bud-shoot. Sheath not compressed, glabrous, green. sometimes purplish at base, split with the broad-hyaline margins overlapping. Auricles absent. Collar medium broad, glabrous, light green or yellow, divided, oblique. Ligule coarse-membranous, faintly striate, 1.0 to 2.5 mm. long, truncate to obtuse, entire, ciliate, undulate or oblique, puberulent on back, variable in shape and margin. Blade 3 to 8 mm. wide, 10 to 15 cm. long, flat, taper-pointed, dull; upper surface scabrous and prominently ridged; midrib forming a slight keel on under surface; margins quite scabrous.
Alopecurus pratensis may be distinguished from Phleum pratense by its more scabrous blade margins, absence of cilia on collar and absence of notches on the ligule.
