Smaller Fescues
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. Fescues are very important grasses in the wider landscape with species adapted to all of the main habitat types, while Red Fescue has been long-cultivated and exists in a range of horticultural varieties as well as in the form of several native subspecies. The range of species includes both tall and short species, as well as clump-formers and species with spreading rhizomes. The fescues have here been split up into three broad groups; this page covers the smaller species, while other pages cover larger fescues and fescue relatives. If you are trying to identify a fescue, it's probably worth giving those pages a look, too.
Where are they found?
This group of smaller fescues consists mostly of plants that are generally rather scarce or even rare and favour specific habitats such as sandy heaths or coastal dunes. However, Common Sheep's Fescue is more widespread on sandy soils and the species most likely to be encountered, while some species are included in grass seed mixes on lawns and roadsides.
Identification
Click here for help with some of the terminology used on the grass pages. Fescues generally have an open panicle of flowers, with the spikelets often awned and often clustered towards the ends of wiry side stems. Identifying the smaller species can be difficult, often requiring measurements of very small flower parts to be made. Attention to detail is very important in this group.
Common Sheep's Fescue Festuca ovina
A native perennial, local, but can be very common in a wide range of dry soils, both chalky and acidic and often forming extensive patches in suitable habitat. Flowers May to July. Plants to 50cm in height and forming dense tussocks. Leaf blades very narrow, 0.6-1.4mm wide, hairless, greyish-green to green, blunt at the tip and tightly inrolled. Leaf sheaths rounded, smooth, with rounded auricles and a very short ligule. Flower spike upright, spreading at anthesis, later closing up. Spikelets 5.3-7.2mm with 2-9 florets, upper glume 2.7-4.2mm, lemmas 3.3-4.9mm, with an awn 0.2-1.6mm long.
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Fine-leaved Sheep's Fescue Festuca filiformis
A native perennial, widespread on sandy heaths and commons on acid soils. Flowers May to June. Plants to 35cm in height and forming loose tussocks. Leaf blades very narrow, 0.6-1.2mm wide, hairless, green, blunt or pointed at the tip and tightly inrolled. Leaf sheaths rounded, with short auricles and a very short ligule, less than 0.3mm long. Flower spike upright, spreading at anthesis, later closing up. Spikelets 4.7-5.2mm with 2-8 florets, upper glume 2.2-2.9mm, lemmas 2.7-3.2mm, with an awn 0-0.3mm long. Generally smaller and finer in all of its parts than Common Sheep's Fescue and typically forming flatter, more spreading patches.
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Hard Fescue Festuca trachyphylla
(Festuca brevipila) Introduced from central Europe and can be locally frequent on roadside verges, gold courses and amenity areas where it has been included in grass seed mixes. Flowers May to June. Plants to 50cm in height and forming variously loose or dense tussocks. Leaf blades very narrow, 1.2-2mm wide, hairless, blue-green, usually hairy at the base and tightly inrolled. Leaf sheaths not fused, with short auricles and a very short ligule, less than 0.5mm long. Flower spike upright, spreading at anthesis, later closing up. Spikelets 6.4-8mm with 3-6 florets, upper glume 3.6-4.5mm, lemmas 4.2-5.2mm, with an awn 1.4-2.5mm long.
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Blue Fescue Festuca longifolia
A rare native, largely confined to Suffolk Breckland and the South Devon coast. Found at a small handful of sites in short, grassy areas on sandy soil. Flowers May to June. Plants to 50cm in height and forming variously loose or dense tussocks. Leaf blades very narrow, 1-1.8mm wide, hairless, blue-green, smooth and tightly inrolled. Leaf sheaths fused for up to one third of their length, with short auricles and a very short ligule, less than 0.5mm long. Flower spike upright, spreading at anthesis, later closing up. Spikelets 5.4-7mm with 3-6 florets, upper glume 2.8-3.5mm, lemmas 3.6-4.4mm, with an awn 0.3-2.5mm long.
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Glaucous Fescue Festuca glauca
Introduced as a garden ornamental from Southern Europe. Only once recorded so far in the wider coutryside in our region, but widely planted in municipal plantings and may occur as an escape from cultivation. Flowers May to June. Plants to 40cm in height and forming tight tussocks. Leaf blades very narrow, 0.5-0.9mm wide, pale blue-green to almost whitish with a pale pruinescence, curved and tightly inrolled. Leaf sheaths not fused, with short auricles and a very short ligule, less than 0.4mm long. Flower spike upright, with spikelets densely packed. Spikelets 6-6.5mm with 2-5 florets, upper glume 2.8-3.7mm, lemmas 3.5-4.6mm, with an awn 0.8-1.6mm long.
Note: Often sold in the horticultural industry as 'Blue Fescue', causing confusion with our native plant of the same name.
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Grey Hair-grass Corynephorus canescens
A native perennial, confined to sand dunes where wind-blown sand is available in coastal Norfolk and Suffolk and in Suffolk Breckland. Flowers June to July. Plants 10-35cm in height, densely tussock-forming. Leaves 0.3-0.5mm wide, narrow, inrolled, rather stiff and sharply pointed at the tip. Leaf sheaths usually purple-tinted, contrasting with the blue-green leaves. Ligule membranous, 2-4mm long, pointed at the tip. Flower spike open at anthesis, closing tightly after pollination, usually purple-tinted, 1.5-8cm in length. Spikelets 3-4mm, each with 2 florets. Glumes relatively large, 2.5-4mm, enclosing the florets. Lemmas 1.5-2mm long with a tiny, but highly distinctive, blunt-tipped awn hidden by the glume. One of our rarest native grasses and Red Data List species. Not closely related to the fescues but included here because of similarities in its appearance and it often grows alongside smaller fescues in sandy places.
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