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Land Tussac

Festuca contracta

Land tussac is a dense, blue-green, tufted grass native to windswept subantarctic islands and the cool coasts of southern South America. It is a hardy, cold-tolerant plant grown mainly in cool-temperate or maritime gardens and for habitat restoration.

Family
Poaceae (Grass family)
Grows as
Grass
Light
Full sun, Part shade
Water
Water regularly while establishing, then let the top of the soil dry slightly between waterings; tolerates damp, peaty conditions.
Soil
Moist, peaty or well-drained loam; tolerates poor, acidic soils.
Temperature
5–20 °C; very cold hardy, but protect from prolonged heat and humid summer heat.
How easy
Easy
Native range
Subantarctic Is. to S. Argentina
Climate
temperate

About

Festuca contracta, commonly known as tufted fescue or land tussac, is a species of true grass (Poaceae). It is native to many subantarctic islands in, and the coasts bordering, the Southern Ocean. The specific epithet comes from the Latin contractus (compressed or contracted), with reference to the inflorescence.

Where it grows

The plant is native to Macquarie Island, South Georgia, the Kerguelen and Falkland Islands, as well as to Tierra del Fuego and Patagonia. On Macquarie it is common in peaty areas, from the coast to at least 350 m above sea level.

Other Festuca plants

Festuca floribunda · Festuca abyssinica · Banks Peninsula Blue Tussock · Festuca alatavica · Festuca aloha · Festuca alpina · Altai fescue · Wood Fescue · Amethyst Fescue · Festuca ampla · Festuca amplissima · Festuca argentina

Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Festuca contracta by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.

The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.

Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.

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