Festuca gautieri

Festuca scoparia var serpentina in the Ecological- Botanical Garden Bayreuth

The bearskin fescue ( Festuca gautieri; Syn F. scoparia ), commonly referred to as bearskin Grass, is a plant belonging to the family of grasses ( Poaceae ), which is known primarily as an ornamental grass in gardens.

Description

The bearskin fescue is a perennial, overwintering green grass, with about 20 to 50 centimeters high and barren stalks, which have a diameter of 0.9 to 1.7 millimeters. It is dense horstförmigem growth with very thin, bristle- shaped union to bins, folded and one-third to three-quarters the length of tubular closed leaves. Leaf blades carry five to seven vascular bundles. The ligule ( ligules ) are membranous, slightly fringed and reach approximately 0.5 to 1 mm in length.

The yellow-green inflorescence is a panicle, which reaches about 4.5 to 7 centimeters in length. The panicle branches are hairy and each carry an elongated, flattened spikelets, which is about 9 to 11 millimeters long. The glumes ( GLUMAE ) are ungekielt and shorter than the spikelets, the lower is einnervig, the top three is annoying and 4.9 to 5.8 millimeters long. The five annoying lemmas ( lemma) reach 6 to 7.3 millimeters in length. The flowering period extends from June to July.

Distribution and location

The bearskin fescue is common in southwestern Europe, especially in the Pyrenees. It requires moisture- permeable but soils in semi -shaded position.

Others

The bearskin fescue forms with the Schwingelart Festuca eskia a hybrid, called " Festuca Xpicoeuropeana Nava ".

Due to its attractive, almost spherical shape of the bearskin fescue is used as an ornamental plant in gardens and landscaping. It is unpretentious and especially suitable in rock gardens and in the heather garden and for container plants.