Grass Description
Moist or dry meadows, edges of woods, stream sides, rocky outcrops, and disturbed areas such as fields, fence rows and roadsides.
General Description
Tall oatgrass is a loosely-tufted grass with erect, smooth stems 28 to 70 inches tall that are occasionally bulb-like at the base. It is sometimes rhizomatous. It begins growth in early spring and remains green late into the fall. Roots are yellow.
Tall perennials with flat blades. Seedheads are narrow; spikelets are 2-flowered, the lower flower is male, the upper flower has male and female flower parts, disarticulates above the glumes. awn on the first glume twisted, attached below mid-length.
Flower Characteristics
Seedhead is open and spreading to 3 inches wide, 3 to 12 inches long, green, shiny; sometimes purple-tinged and spikelet-bearing to its base. Lower sterile floret lemma with a stout, twisted or bent awn. Upper fertile floret has a bristle-tipped lemma.
Vegetative Characteristics
There are hairs on the surface of the leaf sheath, but the hairs do not have blisters at their bases. Leaf blades are flat and rough to the touch. They are from 3/8 to 3/4 inches wide.
Useful for erosion control on surface mined lands and marginal pastureland. Grown as a forage grass, it yields a palatable hay with high amounts of phosphorus and calcium in its tissues. It does not withstand heavy grazing.