Grass Description
Dry wasteland, especially on heavier soils. Roadsides, fields, railroads, and other disturbed places.
General Description
Oats have a fibrous root system. Stems are erect, smooth, and hollow. The leaves are narrow. The primary seedhead branches are drooping. The spikelets (clustered units of flowers and bracts) are solitary and pendulous.
Spikelets are mostly 2-flowered, lemma awns are straight and not twisted, often reduced; lemmas are glabrous while the lemmas of A. fatua are long-hairy on their back; florets do not easily fall from the glumes.
Flower Characteristics
The seedhead is open, pyramidal, loosely spreading, nodding, 7 to 15 inches long and 2 to 6 inches wide. Spikelets have 2 or 3 wedge-shaped fertile florets, overlapping glumes; attach to main seedhead by thin stems and stay on the seedhead at maturity.
Vegetative Characteristics
Leaves are cauline (arise from the upper part of the stem). Leaf-blades are 5 to 15 inches long and less than 1/2 inch wide. The leaf-blade surface is minutely rough-textured on both sides. The tip of the leaf-blade tapers to a point.
Oats are high in protein, carbohydrates and fiber. Both the grain and fodder are utilized by grazing animals. The forage yield and forage feeding value of the harvested crop change as the oat plant matures through its growth stages.