Festuca occidentalis

Western fescue

Family: Poaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Western fescue is a California native perennial grass found in northwestern California, the Cascade Range, Sierra Nevada, northern and central Coast Ranges, Peninsular Ranges, and Modoc Plateau in open pine and oak woodlands, redwood forests at elevations generally below 1,900 meters. Flowering from April to July, this grass produces delicate drooping branches with small greenish-brown spikelets 6 to 12 millimeters long. Growing in loosely clumped clusters with slender stems 40 to 110 centimeters tall, its stems have visible nodes and a distinctive growth pattern. Its leaves are narrow, soft, and folded, typically 5 to 25 centimeters long and less than 1 millimeter wide, often forming a V-shape when viewed in cross-section. The plant's leaf sheaths gradually shred with age, and its flower lemmas feature sparse scabrous tips with awns 3 to 12 millimeters long.

Habitat: Open pine/oak woodland, redwood forest

Bloom period: Apr-Jul

Elevation: generally < 1900 m

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

California counties: Fresno, Sonoma, Trinity, Tulare, Shasta, Butte, Del Norte, Humboldt, Mariposa, Napa, Lake, Tuolumne, Mendocino, Plumas, Kern, Santa Cruz, Siskiyou, Marin, Modoc, El Dorado, Riverside, San Mateo, Tehama, San Diego, Placer, Nevada, Sierra, Calaveras, Glenn, Inyo, Monterey, Santa Barbara, Santa Clara, Yuba, Lassen, San Benito, San Luis Obispo, Amador, San Francisco, Madera

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