Festuca idahoensis

Idaho fescue, blue bunchgrass, Blue Bunchgrass

Family: Poaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Idaho fescue is a native perennial grass found in northwestern California, the Cascade Range, northern Sierra Nevada, northern coastal regions, and Modoc Plateau in dry, open or shady places at elevations generally below 1,800 meters. Flowering from July to September, this grass produces delicate, pale green to brownish spikelets in dense, compact clusters. Growing in densely clumped tufts 30 to 100 centimeters tall with visible nodes, it forms stiff, wiry stems with narrow, rolled leaves. Its leaves are less than 2 millimeters wide, 5 to 35 centimeters long, somewhat stiff and slightly rough to the touch. The grass produces spikelets 7 to 17 millimeters long with 3 to 9 individual florets, each featuring a small awn 1 to 6 millimeters in length.

Habitat: Dry, open or shady places

Bloom period: Jul-Sep

Elevation: generally < 1800 m

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

California counties: Humboldt, Mendocino, Lassen, Sonoma, Del Norte, Siskiyou, Shasta, Modoc, Plumas, El Dorado, Marin, Monterey, San Mateo, Tehama, Lake, Mono, San Bernardino, Napa, Alpine, Calaveras, Glenn, San Benito, Santa Cruz, Sierra, Sutter, San Francisco, Trinity, Placer, Contra Costa, Solano, San Luis Obispo, Butte, Nevada, Alameda, Tuolumne, Stanislaus, Mariposa

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