FLORA OF ICELAND elements: Schedonorus pratensis, Meadow Fescue, Hávingull

Schedonorus pratensis; The Meadow Fescue is a middle-sized grass (50 - 100cm tall).
  - The plant grows in loose tufts The leaves have characteristic ears along the small to almost absent ligules. The bottom leaves eventually decay into fibers.
  - The panicle is rather narrow with short upright to spreading branchlets. The spikelets are long an narrow bearing about 6 -13 flowers.
  - It grows in rather dry grasslands. It is rather rare on Iceland, having been sown in several localities. I encountered it on Heimaey on a rather steep slope just north of the camping ground. Specialists believe that there may be one locality where it may be native (Pétersey, South Iceland).
  - The Meadow Fescue (Schedonorus pratensis formerly also known as Festuca pratensis) is a member of the grass family (Poaceae, formerly known as Graminea). Formerly it was also known as Festuca pratensis and Lolium pratense. The Icelandic name of this species is Hávingull.

A very similar species listed in Pawel Wąsowicz "ANNOTATED CHECKLIST OF VASCULAR PLANTS OF ICELAND" as a casual alien is Schedonorus arundinaceus (Tall Fescue, Tágavingul). They are difficult to tell apart, but here are the differences:
  - The Tall Fescue grows in dense tufts where the Meadow Fescue grows in rather loose tufts.
  - The first (lowest) branchlets in the inflorescence contains one branchlet with only 2-3 spikelets in the Meadow Fescue where the lowest branchlets of the Tall Fescue always has at least 4 spikelets.
  - The ears at the ligule are glabrous in the Meadow Fescue where they have a line of hairs in the Tall Fescue
The Tall Fescue is taller (up to 2m) than the Meadow Fescue (up to 1m). However, the Tall Fescue can be much lower than the maximum length, so this is not a good differentiating trait.
Formerly it was also known as Festuca arundinacea and Lolium arundinaceaum.