Sheep fescue (Festuca ovina)

Description: Introduced as a ground cover and for soil stabilization.

Habit: Densely tufted, cool season, dwarf bunchgrass.

Leaves: Numerous, narrow, involute, stiff, semi-erect and short.

Stems: Numberous fine, stiff to semi-erect, 30-50 cm. long, glabrous and smooth; sheaths closed for half of length, blades 10-20 cm. long, smooth or scabrous, 1-3 indistinct ribs.

Flowers: Panicle is narrow, dense, nearly spike-like and protrudes well above the basal leaves on stiff, naked culms. 4 in. long with 4-5 flowers per spikelet.

Fruit and seeds: Tipped seed with 1/8 to 1/4 in. awns. Unequal glumes persist after seed shatter.

Habitat: Native to Europe. Can be found growing in open exposed bench lands, hillsides and ridges, parks, meadows, forestlands, and open ponderosa and lodgepole pine stands as well as mountain and foothill slopes between 1,000 and 13,000 ft.

Reproduction: By seed.

Credits: The information provided in this factsheet was gathered from the USDA NRCS Plant Guide for Sheep fescue and SEINet.

Individual species images that appear with a number in a black box are courtesy of the Bugwood.org network (http://www.invasive.org). Individual photo author credits may not be included due to the small display size of the images and subsequent difficulty of reading the provided text. All other images appear courtesy of Google (http://images.google.com).

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