Festuca elmeri

Coast fescue

Family: Poaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Coast fescue is a California native perennial grass found in northwestern and central western California on moist, wooded slopes under trees in rich soil at elevations below 1,830 meters. Flowering from May to July, this plant produces delicate grass flowers in loose, drooping clusters 10 to 20 centimeters long. Growing in loosely tufted clumps 40 to 100 centimeters tall with visible nodes, it forms distinctive grass clusters with slender stems. Its grass blades are 10 to 40 centimeters long, 2 to 6 millimeters wide, flat or loosely rolled, and slightly rough or hairy on the upper surface. The grass produces spikelets 7 to 11 millimeters long with 2 to 6 florets, each lemma bearing a short 2 to 5 millimeter awn subterminal between two small teeth.

Habitat: Moist, wooded slopes, under trees in rich soil

Bloom period: May-Jul

Elevation: < 1830 m

Bioregions: NW, CW

California counties: San Luis Obispo, Lake, Napa, Santa Barbara, Marin, Humboldt, Riverside, Butte, Monterey, Santa Clara, Sutter, Santa Cruz, Alameda, Contra Costa, El Dorado, Mendocino, Nevada, San Mateo, Sonoma, Trinity, Siskiyou, Placer, Colusa, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Tehama, Solano

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