A SURVEY OF PRESERVED SPECIMENS OF THE GENUS FESTUCA L. (POACEAE) IN ROMANIA

Abstract

The genus Festuca L. is a genus of flowering plants belonging to the grass family Poaceae, being one of the largest in Gramineae with ±450 species in temperate and alpine regions of both hemispheres with a cosmopolitan distribution occurring on every continent except Antarctica. They are evergreen or herbaceous perennial tufted grasses with a height range of 10–200 cm. The specimens of Festuca are preserved in the Al Beldie Herbarium from INCDS Marin Drăcea Bucharest. This Herbarium hosted 309 vouchers with 52 Festuca species, most of them belonging to F. gigantea (28), F. versicolor (27) and F. arundinacea (22). The oldest specimens were collected in 1773 and 1788. Most of the herbarium specimens were generally in very good (198) and good (76) condition except for a smaller number of specimens which were damaged (35). The aim of this article is to describe some Festuca species which are very good preserved.