Fescue Allies
What are they?
The fescues are a large group of grasses and one of the more difficult groups to identify to species. Taxonomists have disagreed for a long time on how to define some of the species and there is often hybridisation between this group and closely-related groups such as the rye-grasses. Indeed, some of the larger fescues spent time in the genus Schedonorus and more recently were moved into Lolium. this page covers a handful of species that have traditionally been placed in the genus Vulpia in the past, while other pages cover smaller fescues and larger fescues. If you are trying to identify a fescue, it's probably worth giving those pages a look, too.
Where are they found?
These are wide-ranging species, typically found in open or disturbed habitats such as sand dunes, rough tracks, roadsides, urban environments and disturbed ground such as arable land and gardens.
Identification
Click here for help with some of the terminology used on the grass pages. The specis covered here tend to differ from other fescue groups in having flowers with long and very noticeable awns and in having conspicuously unequal glumes. Careful attention to the flower parts is required for identification, particularly measurements and relative sizes of the glumes and lemmas.
Rat's-tail Fescue Festuca myuros
A native annual, widespread in many kinds of open and disturbed habitats, especially on dry or sandy soils and as a weed on walls and pavements. Flowers May to July. Plants 10-70cm in height, larger plants tussocky with many stems but single- or few-stemmed in drier sites. Leaf blades 0.5-3mm wide, flat or inrolled, downy above, smooth beneath. Leaf sheaths rounded and smooth. Ligule membranous, short to medium. Flower spike narrow and gracefully upright. Spikelets 7-10mm long, with 3-7 florets, loosely spaced in the spike. Lemmas 5-7mm long with a long and slender awn to 15mm in length.
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Squirreltail Fescue Festuca bromoides
A native annual, widespread on dry, usually sandy, soils and as a weed in urban areas. Flowers May to July. Plants 5-60cm in height, stems clustered, or single in drier sites. Leaf blades 0.5-3mm wide, flat or inrolled, downy above, rough on the margins. Leaf sheaths rounded and smooth. Ligule membranous, up to 0.5mm in length. Flower spike with upright or slightly spreading branches, with many spikelets, or reduced to two or even just a single spikelet in dry ground. Spikelets 7-14mm long, with 5-10 florets. Lower glume 2.5-5mm long, half to three-quarters the length of the upper glume. Lemmas 5-7mm long with a long and slender awn to 13mm in length. As it's scientific name suggests, this little grass looks rather like a cross between a fescue and a brome.
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Bearded Fescue Festuca ambigua
(Vulpia ciliata) A native annual, widespread but generally uncommon in sandy places around the coast and in Breckland, occasionally elsewhere. Flowers May to June. Plants 5-30cm in height, loosely tufted. Leaf blades 0.5-2mm wide, flat or inrolled, minutely hairy above, rough on the margins. Leaf sheaths rounded and smooth. Ligule membranous, extremely short. Flower spike upright, very narrow and one-sided. Spikelets 5-10.5mm long, with 3-7 florets. Lower glume 0.2-1mm long, upper glume 2-3mm long. Lemmas 4-8mm long with a long and slender awn to 10mm in length.
Note: Has in the past been classified as Vulpia ciliata subsp. ambigua but both the forms ciliata and ambigua are merged as one species under F. ambigua now, with the forms no longer recognised at the subspecies level.
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Membranous Fescue Festuca membranacea
(Vulpia membranacea subsp. membranacea) A possibly native annual, known from a single location in West Suffolk where it was discovered in 2023. Flowers May to June. Membranous and Dune Fescues are extemely similar, both showing extremely unequal glumes and lemmas and awns mostly larger and longer than those of the other species on this page. Separating Membranous and Dune Fescues requires a high powered lens or binocular microscope to look for the presence or absence of a cluster of short, bristly hairs at the tip of the ovary. These hairs are absent on Membranous Fescue. In general, the Suffolk population tends to have rather elongate stems with the flowers carried well clear of the uppermost leaf and the plants 'lodge', i.e. lay flat on the ground as the seeds mature.
Note: Dune Fescue was previously considered to be a subspecies of F. membranacea and that scientific name is used for it in older books.
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