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Festuca rubra

Summary 8

Festuca rubra is a species of grass known by the common name red fescue or creeping red fescue. It is found worldwide and can tolerate many habitats and climates. It is best adapted to well-drained soils in cool, temperate climates; it prefers shadier areas and is often planted for its shade tolerance. Wild animals browse it, but it has not been important for domestic forage due to low productivity and palatability. It is also an ornamental...

Cultivation 9

Festuca rubra, as red fescue or creeping red fescue, is cultivated as an ornamental plant for use as a turfgrass and groundcover. It can be left completely unmowed, or occasionally trimmed for a lush meadow-like look. There are many subspecies, and many cultivars have been bred for the horticulture trade.

Description 9

Festuca rubra is perennial and has sub-species forms that have rhizomes and/or forms bunchgrass tufts. It mainly exists in neutral and acidic soils. It can grow between 2 to 20 cm tall.

Like all fescues, the leaves are narrow and needle like, making it less palatable to livestock. The swards that it forms are not as tufted as sheep's fescue (Festuca ovina) or wavy hair grass (Deschampsia flexuosa). The tufted nature is what gives the grass its springy characteristic. The leaves are bright green.

There are 4 to 10 spikelet flowers, which are up to 15 mm long.

The ligule is very short and blunt.

Associations 10

Foodplant / parasite
hypophyllous telium of Puccinia festucae parasitises live leaf of Festuca arenaria
Remarks: season: summer

In Great Britain and/or Ireland:
Foodplant / parasite
sorus of Urocystis ulei parasitises live leaf of Festuca arenaria

Comments 11

Festuca rubra is a very polymorphic species, widespread in temperate and cold regions of the N hemisphere, and useful for pastures and lawns. Members of the complex (nos. 35–42) may be identified by the presence of young tiller leaf sheaths that are fused in a tube almost to the top. Look for this character if the leaf sheaths are reddish brown with retrorse hairs and the older leaf sheaths are fibrous. Leaf cross sections of the F. rubra complex are characteristic, with small patches of sclerenchyma under the lower epidermis, but no strands running across the leaf.

There are numerous variants, and many infraspecific taxa have been described. The following subspecies can be recognized in China.

Habitat characteristics 12

Red fescue occurs on dry to wet sites [17,30] in open habitats [26] from
sea level to high elevations [39]. It is found on sand dunes
[39,42,47,51], dry beaches [1,18,23,67], and coastal headlands [23,39].
It occurs at the upper zone of tidal salt marshes [12,18,56,67]. It
grows on freshwater shores [85], bogs, and marshes [30,41]. It occurs
in mountain meadows and clearings [42]. It is found in fields, on
roadsides [62,85], and on disturbed sites [58].

Red fescue tolerates spring flooding and some water logging, and grows
well under irrigation. It can grow on clay, loam, and sandy soils
provided moisture is adequate. It is also able to withstand some
drought. It tolerates low fertility soils fairly well [71].

Red fescue is somewhat tolerant of salinity [71]; in a saltmarsh in
Britain, red fescue occurred on the most elevated, least salty areas
[12]. Red fescue in open areas along Oregon coast headlands increases
in importance very close to the shore. Red fescue is probably more
resistant to salt spray than are its associates on these sites [14].

In Denali National Park red fescue grows on soil with pH 5.7 to 6.0 at
the 2-inch (5 cm) level [82]. Lower pH limit for red fescue is 4.5 [83].

Red fescue is reported at the following elevations:

Feet Meters

Alaska 1,300- 3,000 396- 914 [19,82]
Arizona 8,500-11,000 2,591-3,353 [46]
California 0- 9,000 0-2,743 [39,56,59]
Colorado 7,000-13,500 2,134-4,115 [9,17,36]
Montana 3,200- 5,000 975-1,524 [17]
Oregon 3,700- 8,000 1,128-2,438 [2,38,43]
Utah 4,500- 9,300 1,372-2,835 [17]
Wyoming 8,000 2,438 [17]

Habitat 13

Grassy slopes, roadsides, alpine meadows, other grassy places, in sun or shade; 600–4500 m.

Sources and Credits

  1. (c) Kristian Peters, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), http://www.flickr.com/photos/26213090@N05/2478738468
  2. (c) Wildlife in a Dorset garden. Thanks for 150,000 views, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), https://www.flickr.com/photos/drinkermoth/8545096343/
  3. (c) auff, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), https://www.flickr.com/photos/auff/15008451946/
  4. (c) Kehan Harman, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), https://www.flickr.com/photos/kehanandkim/705865106/
  5. (c) Peggy A. Lopipero-Langmo, some rights reserved (CC BY), https://www.flickr.com/photos/98699202@N03/10355306005/
  6. (c) fabelfroh, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), https://www.flickr.com/photos/fabelfroh/2477926983/
  7. (c) CountryMouse13, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-ND), https://www.flickr.com/photos/20456595@N04/8133939465/
  8. Adapted by Bea Steinemann from a work by (c) Wikipedia, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Festuca_rubra
  9. (c) Wikipedia, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Festuca_rubra
  10. (c) BioImages, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), http://eol.org/data_objects/22917518
  11. (c) Missouri Botanical Garden, 4344 Shaw Boulevard, St. Louis, MO, 63110 USA, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), http://eol.org/data_objects/19815393
  12. Public Domain, http://eol.org/data_objects/24632169
  13. (c) Missouri Botanical Garden, 4344 Shaw Boulevard, St. Louis, MO, 63110 USA, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), http://eol.org/data_objects/19815394

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