Festuca trachyphylla

Hard or sheep fescue, Sheep Fescue

Family: Poaceae · Type: perennial · Not Native

Hard or sheep fescue is a naturalized perennial grass found in the Klamath Ranges, northern Coast Ranges, Cascade Range, and northern Sierra Nevada at elevations of 1,000 to 1,800 meters in open places and forested slopes. Flowering from May to July, this grass produces pale green to greenish-yellow flowers in compact clusters up to 13 centimeters long. Growing in dense clumps with stems 20 to 75 centimeters tall, it develops visible nodes and sparse hairs near the flowering heads. Its narrow leaves are less than 1 millimeter wide, folded, and somewhat hairy, forming tight clusters at the base of the plant. The grass produces small spikelets 5.5 to 9 millimeters long with 3 to 8 individual florets, each with a short awn 0.5 to 2.5 millimeters long.

Habitat: Open places, slopes in forested areas

Bloom period: May-Jul

Elevation: generally 1000-1800 m

Bioregions: KR, NCoRO, CaR, n SNH, expected elsewhere

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