Hard Fescue

This commercially available species (Hard Fescue or Sheep Fescue) is widely used in North America and Europe for land stabilization on pipelines, mine tailings, and roadside plantings. It may have been introduced to China for similar purposes, but this has not been confirmed.

Plant densely tufted; shoots intravaginal. Culms 20–75 cm tall, nodes 1–2. Leaf sheaths glabrous or hairy; auricles present as erect swellings; leaf blades involute, 8–30 cm × 0.4–0.6 mm, veins (5–)7; adaxial to abaxial sclerenchyma strands absent, abaxial sclerenchyma usually forming an interrupted or almost continuous, unevenly thickened ring, occasionally in 3 strands; ligule 0.1–0.3 mm, margin ciliate. Panicle 3–13 cm, branches 1.2–3.5 cm, 1 at lowest node. Spikelets 5.5–10 mm; florets 4–8; glumes pubescent; lower glume 2–4 mm; upper glume 3–5.5 mm; lemmas 3.8–5.5 mm, scabrid or pubescent; awns 0.5–2.5 mm; palea keels scabrid. Anthers 2–3.4 mm. Ovary apex glabrous. 2n = 42.

Perhaps introduced in China [Russia (European part); Europe; introduced in North America].

Festuca ovina Linnaeus subvar. trachyphylla Hackel,Monogr. Festuc. Eur. 91. 1882.

Perennials, Terrestrial, not aquatic, Basal sheaths fibrous, old leaves persistent at base of plant, Stems nodes swollen or brittle, Stems erect or ascending, Stems caespitose, tufted, or clustered, Stems terete, round in cross section, or polygonal, Stem internodes hollow, Stems with inflorescence less than 1 m tall, Stems, culms, or scapes exceeding basal leaves, Leaves mostly basal, below middle of stem, Leaves mostly cauline, Leaves conspicuously 2-ranked, distichous, Leaves sheathing at base, Leaf sheath mostly open, or loose, Leaf sheath hairy, hispid or prickly, Leaf sheath and blade differentiated, Leaf blades linear, Leaf blade auriculate, Leaf blades very narrow or filiform, less than 2 mm wide, Leaf blade margins folded, involute, or conduplicate, Leaf blades mostly glabrous, Leaf blades more or less hairy, Leaf blad es scabrous, roughened, or wrinkled, Ligule present, Ligule an unfringed eciliate membrane, Inflorescence terminal, Inflorescence an open panicle, openly paniculate, branches spreading, Inflorescence solitary, with 1 spike, fascicle, glomerule, head, or cluster per stem or culm, Inflorescence branches more than 10 to numerous, Flowers bisexual, Spikelets pedicellate, Spikelets laterally compressed, Spikelet less than 3 mm wide, Spikelets with 3-7 florets, Spikelets solitary at rachis nodes, Spikelets all alike and fertille, Spikelets bisexual, Spikelets disarticulating above the glumes, glumes persistent, Spikelets disarticulating beneath or between the florets, Rachilla or pedicel glabrous, Glumes present, empty bracts, Glumes 2 clearly present, Glumes equal or subequal, Glumes shorter than adjacent lemma, Glumes 3 nerved, Lemmas thin, chartaceous, hyaline, cartilaginous, or membranous, Lemma coriaceous, firmer or thicker in texture than the glumes, Lemma 5-7 nerved, Lemma glabrous, Lemma apex acute or acuminate, Lemma mucronate, very shortly beaked or awned, less than 1-2 mm, Lemma distinctly awned, more than 2-3 mm, Lemma with 1 awn, Lemma awn less than 1 cm long, Lemma awned from tip, Lemma margins thin, lying flat, Lemma straight, Palea present, well developed, Palea about equal to lemma, Palea longer than lemma, Palea 2 nerved or 2 keeled, Stamens 3, Styles 2-fid, deeply 2-branched, Stigmas 2, Fruit - caryopsis, Caryopsis ellipsoid, longitudinally grooved, hilum long-linear.

Festuca brevipila, the hard fescue, is a species of grass which can be found everywhere in Canada and in both Eastern and Central United States (except for Arkansas, Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and South Dakota).

The species derives its common name by virtue of being the "hardiest" of the fescue family. It does well in poor soils and is "very drought tolerant" preferring deep and infrequent watering.

This grass is used for residential and sports turf, and erosion control.