Scientific Name
Leucopoa kingii (S. Watson) W.A. Weber (Synonyms: Festuca confinis; Festuca kingii; Hesperochloa kingii; Poa kingii)
Common Name(s)
Spike fescue, king fescue, spikegrass
Tribe / Family Name
Poeae
Flowering Period
June to August
Symbol
LEKI2
Description
Spike fescue is a native cool-season dioecious perennial grass that is tufted and rhizomatous; it reproduces by seeds and rhizomes. Culms range from 30–100 cm in height. Its inflorescence is an erect, contracted to open panicle 7–22 cm long with short and appressed branches. Spikelets are 6–12 mm long, 3- to 7-flowered, and usually unawned or with a subterminal short awn; staminate spikelets somewhat larger than the pistillate spikelets. Ligules are sometimes up to 4 mm long, membranous, truncate, erose-ciliolate, glabrous, and in the shape of a king’s crown.
General Info
Spike fescue can be found in open, dry, rocky outcrops and slopes, dry sagebrush plains, foothills, and montane to subalpine meadow sites.
Similar Species
Spike fescue does not look like many other grasses. The unawned to slightly awn-tipped (<1 mm long) lemmas separates it from a true fescue grass, such as Idaho fescue (Festuca idahoensis), which has awns up to 7 mm long.
Picture of growth habit.
Inflorescence is an erect, contracted to open panicle.
Close-up picture of spikelet.
Close-up picture of ligule.
Illustration of spike fescue. USDA-NRCS PLANTS Database / Hitchcock, A.S. (rev. A. Chase). 1950. <i>Manual of the grasses of the United States.</i> USDA Miscellaneous Publication No. 200. Washington, DC.