Festuca californica

California fescue

Family: Poaceae · Type: perennial · Native

California fescue is a native perennial grass found in northwestern California, the northern California Ranges, northern and central Sierra Nevada, central western California, and San Bernardino Mountains in dry, open forests, moist streambanks, and chaparral at elevations below 1,800 meters. Flowering from May to June, this plant produces delicate green-yellow flower clusters in open inflorescences 10 to 27 centimeters long. Growing in dense clumps with stems 45 to 120 centimeters tall, it features visibly jointed stems that spread in graceful clusters. Its leaves are flat or slightly rolled, 10 to 100 centimeters long and 1.8 to 3.5 millimeters wide, with scabrous (rough) surfaces and conspicuously hairy leaf collars. The grass produces spikelets 13 to 18 millimeters long with 4 to 6 florets, each topped with a small awn 1.5 to 2.5 millimeters long.

Habitat: Dry, open forest, moist streambanks, chaparral

Bloom period: May-Jun

Elevation: < 1800 m

Bioregions: NW, CaR, n&ampc SN, CW, SnBr

California counties: San Mateo, Monterey, Marin, Tulare, Orange, San Bernardino, Siskiyou, Tehama, Los Angeles, Humboldt, Napa, Del Norte, San Luis Obispo, Riverside, Sierra, Butte, Contra Costa, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Solano, Sonoma, Trinity, Yuba, Lake, Alameda, Mendocino, Plumas, San Benito, Colusa, Modoc, Shasta, Santa Barbara, El Dorado, San Francisco

Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.