Alopecurus

Alopecurus, or foxtail grass, is a common and widespread genus of plants in the grass family. It is common across temperate and subtropical parts of Eurasia, northern Africa, and the Americas, as well as naturalized in Australia and on various islands.[6]

Foxtail grass
Slender meadow foxtail
(Alopecurus myosuroides)
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Monocots
Clade: Commelinids
Order: Poales
Family: Poaceae
Subfamily: Pooideae
Supertribe: Poodae
Tribe: Poeae
Subtribe: Alopecurinae
Genus: Alopecurus
L.[1]
Type species
L.[2][3]
Synonyms[4]
  • Alopecuropsis Opiz
  • Cerdosurus Ehrh.
  • Colobachne P.Beauv.
  • Tozzettia Savi
meadow foxtail
(Alopecurus pratensis) [5]

Foxtails can be annual or perennial. They grow in tufts. They have flat leaves and blunt ligules (a small flap at the junction of leaf and stem). Their inflorescence is a dense panicle (a branching head without terminal flower) with 1-flowered spikelets. A few, particularly A. myosuroides, are considered weeds, others are very decorative and are used in bouquets of dried flowers.

Species[4]
  • Alopecurus aequalis – Orange foxtail, shortawn foxtail – Eurasia, Americas
  • Alopecurus albovii – Caucasus
  • Alopecurus anatolicus – eastern Turkey
  • Alopecurus apiatus – Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran
  • Alopecurus arundinaceus – Reed foxtail, creeping foxtail, creeping meadow foxtail – Eurasia, North Africa
  • Alopecurus aucheri – Caucasus, Turkey, Iran
  • Alopecurus baptarrhenius – Ethiopia
  • Alopecurus bonariensis – Argentina, Uruguay
  • Alopecurus borii – Turkmenistan
  • Alopecurus bornmuelleri – Palestine
  • Alopecurus brachystachus – Russia, China, Mongolia
  • Alopecurus bulbosus – Bulbous foxtail – Mediterranean, western Europe
  • Alopecurus carolinianus – tufted meadow foxtail – US, western Canada
  • Alopecurus creticus – Greece, Turkey, Balkans
  • Alopecurus dasyanthus – Caucasus, Iran
  • Alopecurus davisii – Samos Island in Greece
  • Alopecurus geniculatus – Bent foxtail, marsh meadow foxtail – Algeria, Eurasia
  • Alopecurus gerardii – Mediterranean
  • Alopecurus glacialis – Caucasus, Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan
  • Alopecurus × haussknechtianus – central + northwestern Europe
  • Alopecurus heliochloides – Chile
  • Alopecurus himalaicus – Himalayas, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Central Asia, Xinjiang
  • Alopecurus hitchcockii – Peru, Bolivia, Jujuy
  • Alopecurus japonicus – China, Japan, Korea
  • Alopecurus laguroides – Caucasus, Turkey
  • Alopecurus lanatus – Turkey
  • Alopecurus longiaristatus – Heilongjiang, Primorye, Khabarovsk
  • Alopecurus magellanicus – northern Eurasia, North + South America, Falkland Is, South Georgia
  • Alopecurus × marssonii – Ukraine
  • Alopecurus mucronatus – Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan
  • Alopecurus myosuroides – Slender meadow foxtail, black grass, twitch grass, black twitch – Eurasia, North Africa
  • Alopecurus nepalensis – Himalayas, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan
  • Alopecurus × plettkei – France, Germany, Belgium, Netherlands
  • Alopecurus ponticus – Caucasus
  • Alopecurus pratensis – meadow foxtail – Eurasia from Azores to Mongolia
  • Alopecurus rendlei – central + southern Europe, Algeria, Libya, Turkey
  • Alopecurus saccatus – Pacific foxtail – United States (WA OR ID CA), Baja California
  • Alopecurus setarioides – France, Greece, Italy, Balkans, Turkey
  • Alopecurus textilis – Turkey, Caucasus, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Turkmenistan
  • Alopecurus turczaninovii – Siberia
  • Alopecurus × turicensis – France, Switzerland
  • Alopecurus utriculatus – Greece, Turkey, Iraq, Iran, Cyprus, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine
  • Alopecurus vaginatus – Crimea, Caucasus, Turkey, Middle East, Iran, Afghanistan
  • Alopecurus × winklerianus – France, Switzerland, Germany, Poland
formerly included[4]

Numerous species once considered part of Alopecurus but now regarded as better suited to other genera: Agrostis Chaetopogon Cornucopiae Crypsis Koeleria Milium Muhlenbergia Pennisetum Perotis Phleum Polypogon Rostraria Setaria Tribolium

See also

References
  1. Linnaeus, Carl von 1753. Species Plantarum 1: 60–61 in Latin
  2. lectotype designated by Cope, Regnum Veg. 127: 17 (1993)
  3. Tropicos, Alopecurus L.
  4. Kew World Checklist of Selected Plant Families
  5. illustration from Thomé, Flora von Deutschland, Österreich und der Schweiz 1885
  6. Watson L, Dallwitz MJ. (2008). "The grass genera of the world: descriptions, illustrations, identification, and information retrieval; including synonyms, morphology, anatomy, physiology, phytochemistry, cytology, classification, pathogens, world and local distribution, and references". The Grass Genera of the World. Retrieved 2009-08-19.
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