rattail sixweeks grass
Festuca myuros
It earned the name 'sixweeks grass' due to its incredibly rapid life cycle, rushing from germination to seed production in a brief window of spring moisture.
- Scientific name
- Festuca myuros
- Taxonomy
- Plantae › Tracheophyta › Liliopsida › Poales › Poaceae › Festuca
- IUCN Red List status
- Least Concern
- Population trend
- stable
- Biome
- grassland
- Habitat
- Pastures, roadsides, disturbed soils, and open dry grasslands.
- Diet
- Photosynthetic (requires sunlight, water, and soil minerals).
- Range
- Europe, North Africa, Temperate Asia, North America, Australia
- Size
- Stems ranging from 10 to 70 cm in height.
- Lifespan
- Annual (less than 1 year)
- Active
- diurnal
- Threats
- No major threats; highly adaptable and often considered an invasive weed in its non-native range.
- Safe to approach?
- Harmless. You can approach and touch this grass safely at any distance. Its sharp seed awns can cling to clothing and pet fur; simply brush them off to avoid minor physical irritation.
Vulpia myuros , the annual fescue , or rat's-tail fescue , is an annual grass species of the genus Vulpia . It was probably originally native to Eurasia, but it can now be found nearly worldwide as a naturalized species.
Photo: marius, CC-BY, via iNaturalist
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