Festuca violacea, Schleicher ex Gaudin

Tutin, T. G., Heywood, V. H., Burges, N. A., Moore, D. M., Valentine, D. H., Walters, S. M. & Webb, D. A., 1980, Flora Europaea. Volume 5. Alismataceae to Orchidaceae (Monocotyledones), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press : 139

58. F. violacea Schleicher ex Gaudin , Alpina (Winterthur) 3: 57 (1808).

Rather densely caespitose; stems 15-30 cm, slender. Basal leaves rather soft; veins 5; ribs 3; sclerenchyma-strands 7, unequal in width, slender; sheaths closed to the mouth, soon decaying into fibres; ligule a minute rim. Panicle 3-6 cm, rather lax, the branches slender, often flexuous, glabrous or with short,

dense hairs. Spikelets 7-7-5(-8) mm, shiny. Upper glume lance­ olate, acute to acuminate. Lemma lanceolate, glabrous or scabrid above. Ovary sparsely hairy to glabrous. • Alps, Appennini and mountains of Balkan peninsula. Ga Gr He It Ju.

’1 Lemma 5 -3-5-5 x 2-2- 1 mm (b) subsp. macrathera 1 Lemma 4-3-4-7 x 1 -6-2 mm

2 Spikelets pinkish-violet; epidermal cells small (a) subsp. violacea 2 Spikelets green; epidermal cells large (c) subsp. handelii