''Festuca subulata'' is a species of

grass Poaceae () or Gramineae () is a large and nearly ubiquitous family of monocotyledonous flowering plants commonly known as grasses. It includes the cereal grasses, bamboos and the grasses of natural grassland and species cultivated in lawns a ...

known by the common names bearded fescue and nodding fescue. It is native to the northwestern quarter of North America, from

Alaska Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S. ...

South Dakota South Dakota (; Sioux: , ) is a U.S. state in the North Central region of the United States. It is also part of the Great Plains. South Dakota is named after the Lakota and Dakota Sioux Native American tribes, who comprise a large porti ...

to northern California, where it is most often found in moist mountain forests. This fescue is a loosely clumping perennial grass with small rhizomes. The stems are generally between 40 and 80 centimeters in height and have drooping leaves. The

inflorescence An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a Plant stem, stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Morphology (biology), Morphologically, it is the modified part of the shoot of sperma ...

has loosely clustered spikelets. The plant reproduces by seed and rhizome and it sometimes spreads via stolon.

External links

Jepson Manual TreatmentUSDA Plants Profile

Photo gallery
subulata Native grasses of California Grasses of the United States Grasses of Canada Flora of North America {{Pooideae-stub