Festuca rupicola Seeds | Rock Fescue
LATIN NAME: Festuca rupicola
COMMON NAME: Rock Fescue
Plant Profile
Rock fescue is a fine-leaved, densely tufted perennial grass of dry, rocky grassland, limestone slopes and open scrub across central and eastern Europe and into Asia. It grows thirty to sixty centimetres tall, with very narrow, blue-green blades that are stiff and rough to the touch.
The flower heads are open panicles of small spikelets that ripen to a pale straw colour in early summer. The plant forms a neat, dense tussock, and the old leaves persist at the base, giving it a slightly shaggy look in winter that protects the growing points from frost.
The leaf blades are folded rather than flat, which is one way to tell it from related fescues.
Science & Biotechnology
The species belongs to the Festuca ovina aggregate, a group of fine-leaved fescues whose taxonomy has been unsettled for decades, with debate over how many species should be recognised and how they differ from the sheep fescues.
Work on the group has used chromosome counts and DNA markers to separate the taxa, and rock fescue is now generally accepted as distinct, with a more easterly distribution and a preference for dry, base-rich ground. Its endophyte fungi have also been studied, since related fescues carry alkaloid-producing symbionts that affect grazing animals.
Seed is produced freely in good years and is easy to collect by hand.
Uses & Benefits
In the garden it is grown for its fine, blue-green foliage and neat tufted habit, which makes it useful at the front of a border, in a gravel garden or as a container plant. It is drought tolerant and low maintenance, and it combines well with silver-leaved plants and small bulbs.
In the wild it is a useful indicator of dry, unimproved calcareous grassland, and it contributes to the structure of those plant communities. The seed is harvested for restoration sowings on limestone sites, where the fine-leaved fescues are slow to return without help.
It is also used on green roofs, where its shallow roots and drought tolerance suit the thin substrate.
The tidy tussocks look well in a row along a path.
Growing from Seed
Sow in spring, five millimetres deep, at 15-20C. Germination is usually quick and the seedlings are easy to grow on. Plant out in full sun on sharply drained, preferably alkaline soil; the plant resents rich, wet ground and will rot in winter wet.
It is hardy and drought tolerant once established, and it needs little more than an annual tidy-up of the old foliage in early spring, plus a division in spring if the tuft goes bare in the centre. Avoid feeding, which makes the leaves coarse and floppy. In a container, use a gritty compost and water sparingly.
Our Take
Rock fescue is a small, tough grass for a dry, sunny edge, and it looks better for being left alone. It is a good plant for gravel and for containers, where its tidy shape and grey-blue leaves show up well against stone.
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