Avena fatua

Avena fatua is a species of grass in the oat genus. It is known as the common wild oat. This oat is native to Eurasia but it has been introduced to most of the other temperate regions of the world. It is naturalized in some areas and considered a noxious weed in others.^[2][3][4]

Common wild oat
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Clade:	Tracheophytes
Clade:	Angiosperms
Clade:	Monocots
Clade:	Commelinids
Order:	Poales
Family:	Poaceae
Subfamily:	Pooideae
Genus:	Avena
Species:	A. fatua
Binomial name
Avena fatua L.
Synonyms[1]
Synonymy Anelytrum avenaceum Hack. Avena cultiformis (Malzev) Malzev Avena hybrida Peterm. Avena intermedia T.Lestib. Avena japonica Steud. Avena lanuginosa Gilib. Avena meridionalis (Malzev) Roshev. Avena nigra Wallr. Avena occidentalis Durieu Avena septentrionalis Malzev Avena vilis Wallr.

A. fatua is a typical oat in appearance, a green grass with hollow, erect stems 1 to 4 feet (0.30 to 1.22 m) tall bearing nodding structures – panicles – of spikelets. The long dark green leaves are up to 1 centimetre (0.39 in) wide and rough due to small hairs. The seedlings are also hairy. The seed kernel is thinner, longer, darker and hairy when compared with the seed of the common cultivated oat (A. sativa). This species and other wild oats can become troublesome in prairie agriculture when it invades and lowers the quality of a field crop, or competes for resources with the crop plants. It takes very few wild oat plants to cause a significant reduction in the yield of a wheat or cultivated oat field.^[5][6]