Festuca altissimaAll.

WFO wfo-0000869733 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 7 observations

This species has been photographed under an open licence only 7 times, so some figures below are different views of the same plant, taken on the same day, rather than different individuals. They are usually different parts of it: the leaf, the flower, the bark.

Festuca altissima, photographed by Юрий Данилевский (Yuriy Danilevsky)
fig. a Юрий Данилевский (Yuriy Danilevsky), CC BY 4.0 / 2021-06-13 / obs. 162407165
Festuca altissima, photographed by Anastasia Titovets
fig. b Anastasia Titovets, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 176616206
Festuca altissima, photographed by Dmitriy Bochkov
fig. c Dmitriy Bochkov, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 160445263
Festuca altissima, photographed by Dmitriy Bochkov
fig. d Dmitriy Bochkov, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 160445253
Festuca altissima, photographed by Dmitriy Bochkov
fig. e Dmitriy Bochkov, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 83219219
Festuca altissima, photographed by Angelika Baumann
fig. f Angelika Baumann, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 77015680
Festuca altissima, photographed by Thierry Helminger
fig. g Thierry Helminger, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 145097972
Festuca altissima, photographed by Dmitriy Bochkov
fig. h Dmitriy Bochkov, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 57800957

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 38 botanical countries

Regions where Festuca altissima is native: Altay, Buryatiya, Iran, Kazakhstan, Krasnoyarsk, North Caucasus, Transcaucasus, West Siberia, Albania, Austria, Baltic States, Belarus, Belgium, Bulgaria, Central European Russia, Czechia-Slovakia, Denmark, East European Russia, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, North European Russia, Northwest European Russia, Norway, NW. Balkan Pen., Poland, Romania, South European Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine AltayBuryatiyaIranKazakhstanKrasnoyarskNorth CaucasusTranscaucasusWest SiberiaAlbaniaAustriaBaltic StatesBelarusBelgiumBulgariaCentral European RussiaCzechia-SlovakiaDenmarkEast European RussiaFinlandFranceGermanyGreeceHungaryIrelandItalyNetherlandsNorth European RussiaNorthwest European RussiaNorwayNW. Balkan Pen.PolandRomaniaSouth European RussiaSpainSwedenSwitzerlandUkraine
Native distribution of Festuca altissima, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Albania ALB EUROPE
Austria AUT
Baltic States BLT
Belarus BLR
Belgium BGM
Bulgaria BUL
Central European Russia RUC
Czechia-Slovakia CZE
Denmark DEN
East European Russia RUE
Finland FIN
France FRA
Germany GER
Great Britain GRB
Greece GRC
Hungary HUN
Ireland IRE
Italy ITA
Netherlands NET
North European Russia RUN
Northwest European Russia RUW
Norway NOR
NW. Balkan Pen. YUG
Poland POL
Romania ROM
South European Russia RUS
Spain SPA
Sweden SWE
Switzerland SWI
Ukraine UKR
Altay ALT ASIA-TEMPERATE
Buryatiya BRY
Iran IRN
Kazakhstan KAZ
Krasnoyarsk KRA
North Caucasus NCS
Transcaucasus TCS
West Siberia WSB

Not drawn on the map: Great Britain. We hold no public-domain boundary for this region, so it is listed rather than guessed at.

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Where it actually grows measured, from 393 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low -13.8 °C -8.0 °C -1.2 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 18.9 °C 22.2 °C 23.7 °C
Annual rainfall 601 mm 741 mm 1,736 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 94 mm 126 mm 336 mm

It is found where winters bring hard frost. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 393 research-grade observations of Festuca altissima that carry a coordinate, and this is the range those places actually span. The 5th and 95th percentiles are used rather than the minimum and maximum, because a single cultivated specimen in a heated conservatory should not widen a tropical plant's range to the Arctic.

This is not a hardiness zone. A USDA zone is the average annual extreme minimum temperature. The figure above is the mean daily minimum of the coldest month, which is a different quantity and is typically far warmer. Reading one as the other would place a plant several zones too warm, so we do not publish a hardiness zone, because we do not have one.

Also published as 19 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Drymochloa sylvatica (Pollich) Holub
  • Festuca calamaria var. minor Hook.
  • Festuca decidua Bellardi ex Sm.
  • Festuca latifolia DC.
  • Festuca silvatica Vill.
  • Festuca silvatica f. denudata Holmb.
  • Festuca sylvatica Vill.
  • Festuca sylvatica var. decidua (Bellardi ex Sm.) Steud.
  • Festuca sylvatica var. latifolia (DC.) Lamotte
  • Festuca sylvatica var. minor Sond.
  • Poa binervata P.Beauv.
  • Poa sylvatica Pollich
  • Poa sylvatica var. subaristata Parn.
  • Poa trinervata Ehrh.
  • Schedonorus alpinus Hoppe
  • Schedonorus altissimus (All.) P.Beauv.
  • Schedonorus deciduus (Bellardi ex Sm.) Gray
  • Schedonorus latifolius (DC.) Roem. & Schult.
  • Schedonorus sylvaticus (Pollich) P.Beauv.

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.