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Sheep's Fescue, Festuca ovina

Sheep's Fescue
Festuca ovina
Feisciú caorach
Family: Poaceae

Flowering May - July. Perennial. Native.
Identification by Paul Green

Very variable. Branched flowerheads with many-flowered, small green or purplish spikelets. Flowers with short awns. Short, narrow, inrolled leaves with short, blunt ligules. Sheaths split more than halfway to base. Densely tufted, without runners or rhizines. Height 8-30cms.

Occurs on well-drained, +/- calcareous grasslands.
Unevenly recorded, most records are for Festuca ovina agg.

Similar: Viviparous Fescue, F. vivipara and Red Fescue, F. rubra


Sheep's Fescue, Festuca ovina       Sheep's Fescue, Festuca ovina



Sheep's Fescue, Festuca ovina agg. Barley Cove, Co. Cork. June 2009

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