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Rocky Mountain fescue

Festuca saximontana

Also called Mountain Fescue

Rocky Mountain fescue
Photo: Jim Morefield from Nevada, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0

Rocky Mountain fescue is a small, densely tufted, bluish-grey perennial bunchgrass native to cool, dry mountain and boreal habitats. It is grown mainly for native or naturalistic plantings and needs good drainage and full sun.

Family
Poaceae (Grass family)
Grows as
Grass, Perennial
Light
Full sun
Water
Water sparingly once established; let the soil dry out between waterings.
Soil
Well-drained, gritty or sandy soil; tolerates poor, rocky ground.
Temperature
Cold hardy to well below freezing; prefers cool summers and tolerates winter lows.
How easy
Easy
Safety
Not known to be toxic
Native range
N. Russian Far East, Subarctic America to N. & W. U.S.A. and Mexico (Coahuila)
Climate
temperate

About

Festuca saximontana, the rocky mountain fescue or the mountain fescue, is a perennial grass native to North America. The specific epithet saximontana is Latin and means "of the Rocky Mountains". The grass has a diploid number of 42.

Where it grows

Festuca saximontana grows in dry or mesic grasslands, woodlands, and sand dunes throughout boreal, mountainous, and subalpine North America. It grows at altitudes below 3,600 m (11,800 ft).

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 saximontana 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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