Festuca kingii

Spike fescue

Family: Poaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Spike fescue is a California native perennial found in southern Sierra Nevada, San Bernardino Mountains, and Great Basin regions in dry, sandy places ranging from sagebrush plains to subalpine forest at elevations above 1,550 meters. Flowering from June to August, this grass produces small greenish-white spikelets in dense, tufted clusters. Growing 30 to 80 centimeters tall with distinctive tufted stems and conspicuous nodes, it forms dense clumps with short rhizomes. Its leaf blades are stiffly erect, glaucous green, 15 to 30 centimeters long and 1.5 to 7 millimeters wide, with leaf sheaths that turn red-brown with age. The grass produces plump fruits with a minute beak, characteristic of its distinctive growth form.

Habitat: Dry, sandy places, sagebrush plains to subalpine forest

Bloom period: Jun-Aug

Elevation: > 1550 m

Bioregions: s SNH, SnBr, GB

California counties: San Bernardino, Mono, Inyo

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