Giant fescue

Festuca gigantea (giant fescue), now also placed by some authorities as Lolium giganteum, is a loosely tufted perennial grass of the family Poaceae, with erect to slightly spreading hollow culms typically reaching about 1–1.5 m tall and occasionally up to 1.65 m. The broad, soft, glabrous, mid-green leaf blades are flat, up to 18 mm wide, with prominent veins and a roughened upper surface; at the leaf-sheath junction sits a short truncate membranous ligule about 2 mm long and a pair of pointed, falcate auricles that partially clasp the stem. From mid-July to early September the plant bears a loose, nodding, open panicle up to 40 cm long with slender drooping branches; the elongated spikelets are 10–17 mm long with 4–8 florets, and each lemma terminates in a long, fine, slightly curved awn up to 22 mm long that distinguishes giant fescue from other tall woodland fescues. Native to woodland and shaded habitats across Europe and much of temperate Asia, it grows on damp, base-rich heavy neutral to calcareous loams in deciduous woodland, hedge banks, riverside thickets, and shady road verges; it has been introduced locally in parts of North America.