BOTANICAL AND ECOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS
SPECIES: Leucopoa kingii | Spike Fescue 



GENERAL BOTANICAL CHARACTERISTICS : 
Spike fescue is a coarse, densely tufted, rhizomatous, perennial
bunchgrass which grows from 12 to 39 inches (3-10 dm) in height [5,12].
Plants grow from dense clumps of straw-colored sheaths and culms [5].
Spike fescue often grows in a ringlike pattern, forming tufts up to 6.6
feet (2 m) in diameter [5].  This bluish-green grass is smooth to
densely puberulent-scaberulous [14,19].

Heavily veined blades are stiff, erect, glaucous, and flat to loosely
involate [14,19].  Hollow culms grow in dense clumps [5,12].  Sheaths
are smooth, striate, and open, and reddish-brown when older [19].
Evidence suggests that the leaves of spike fescue are able to restrict
transpiration through stomatal control, permitting growth on sites with
high solar radiation loads during the growing season [4].

Spike fescue is three to five flowered, with spikelets laterally
compressed [5].  Glumes are broadly lanceolate and membranous, with
lemmas generally awnless [5].  Awnless ligules are membranous with a
rounded keel [5,14].  Fruit is bidentate [14].

Spike fescue is functionally dioecious [13] and is unusual in having an
excess number of males within populations [9].  Spike fescue is believed
to exhibit habitat assortment by sex, with fewer females present in more
xeric habitats [9].


RAUNKIAER LIFE FORM : 
   Hemicryptophyte
   Geophyte


REGENERATION PROCESSES : 
Little is known about regeneration of spike fescue.  It is known to be a
rhizomatous perennial [12].  The plants are described as "functionally
dioecious" and produce bidentate fruit [13].  Reproduction may be
sexual, vegetative, or both [9].  Female plants growing in xeric
habitats generally display less reproductive vigor than do male plants
from the same sites [9].


SITE CHARACTERISTICS : 
Spike fescue grows on moist to, more typically, dry grasslands, open
woods, and rolling hills up to 11,000 feet (3,353 m) in elevation [14].
It occurs on open ridges and gravelly mountainsides, commonly on severe,
windy, droughty sites [5,24].  Spike fescue often occurs in a thin stip
between adjacent drier nonforest communities and more mesic slopes
dominated by Douglas-fir (Pseudosuga menziesii), spruce (Picea spp.), or
subalpine fir (Abies lasiocarpa) [23].  This species is adapted to
growth under low air temperatures and high solar radiation loads [4].

The understory in spike fescue communities is typically low and sparse,
with bare soil or rock comprising a high percentage of the cover
[23,27].  Sites frequently have a "savanna-like" appearance [23].

Spike fescue grows best on sandy to clayey loams [6], but on some sites
soils may be dry and stony [27].  Common associates include limber pine,
mountain big sagebrush, curlleaf mountain-mahogany, bluebunch
wheatgrass, and prairie junegrass.  Annual forbs are often well
represented [P. Stickney, pers. comm. 1987].

Elevational ranges are as follows [6]:

      from   5,500-10,000 ft (1,678-3,050 m) in CO
             5,200-9,500 ft (1,586-2,898 m) in MT
             5,400-10,300 ft (1,647-3,142 m) in UT
             5,200-10,000 ft (1,586-3,050 m) in WY 


SUCCESSIONAL STATUS : 
Spike fescue is considered to be an indicator of climax in a number of
sagebrush-grassland, mountain grassland, and drier forest habitat types.
It grows as a topographic climax species on dry, stony, windswept ridges
and other harsh microsites [27].


SEASONAL DEVELOPMENT : 
New growth arises from clumps of persistent, reddish-brown or
straw-colored sheaths and culms [5,19].  Flowering dates are as follows
[6]:

            Beginning of Flowering                 End of Flowering
   CO               June                                August
   MT               June                                August
   WY               June                                August

Related categories for Species: Leucopoa kingii | Spike Fescue