Festuca bromoidesL.

brome fescue

WFO wfo-0000869987 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Festuca bromoides, photographed by Humber Alberto
fig. a Humber Alberto, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-04-30 / obs. 192682697
Festuca bromoides, photographed by Humber Alberto
fig. b Humber Alberto, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 192667651
Festuca bromoides, photographed by Humber Alberto
fig. c Humber Alberto, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 191999371
Festuca bromoides, photographed by Humber Alberto
fig. d Humber Alberto, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 191903920
Festuca bromoides, photographed by lotusmorning
fig. e lotusmorning, CC0 1.0 / obs. 195692115
Festuca bromoides, photographed by Thomas Mesaglio
fig. f Thomas Mesaglio, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 162594541
Festuca bromoides, photographed by Thomas Mesaglio
fig. g Thomas Mesaglio, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 94450496
Festuca bromoides, photographed by Stephen Thorpe
fig. h Stephen Thorpe, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 89554631

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 49 botanical countries

Regions where Festuca bromoides is native: Algeria, Azores, Cameroon, Canary Is., Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Libya, Madeira, Mauritania, Morocco, Selvagens, Somalia, Sudan-South Sudan, Tunisia, Uganda, Lebanon-Syria, Transcaucasus, Türkiye, Yemen, Albania, Austria, Baleares, Belgium, Bulgaria, Corse, Czechia-Slovakia, Denmark, France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, NW. Balkan Pen., Poland, Portugal, Romania, Sardegna, Sicilia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Türkiye-in-Europe, Ukraine AlgeriaCameroonDjiboutiEgyptEritreaEthiopiaKenyaLibyaMauritaniaMoroccoSelvagensSomaliaSudan-South SudanTunisiaUgandaLebanon-SyriaTranscaucasusTürkiyeYemenAlbaniaAustriaBelgiumBulgariaCorseCzechia-SlovakiaDenmarkFranceGermanyGreeceHungaryIrelandItalyNetherlandsNW. Balkan Pen.PolandPortugalRomaniaSiciliaSpainSwedenSwitzerlandTürkiye-in-EuropeUkraine AzoresCanary Is.MadeiraBalearesSardegna
Native distribution of Festuca bromoides, 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. Regions too small to draw at this scale are marked with a dot.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Albania ALB EUROPE
Austria AUT
Baleares BAL
Belgium BGM
Bulgaria BUL
Corse COR
Czechia-Slovakia CZE
Denmark DEN
France FRA
Germany GER
Great Britain GRB
Greece GRC
Hungary HUN
Ireland IRE
Italy ITA
Netherlands NET
NW. Balkan Pen. YUG
Poland POL
Portugal POR
Romania ROM
Sardegna SAR
Sicilia SIC
Spain SPA
Sweden SWE
Switzerland SWI
Türkiye-in-Europe TUE
Ukraine UKR
Algeria ALG AFRICA
Azores AZO
Cameroon CMN
Canary Is. CNY
Djibouti DJI
Egypt EGY
Eritrea ERI
Ethiopia ETH
Kenya KEN
Libya LBY
Madeira MDR
Mauritania MTN
Morocco MOR
Selvagens SEL
Somalia SOM
Sudan-South Sudan SUD
Tunisia TUN
Uganda UGA
Lebanon-Syria LBS ASIA-TEMPERATE
Transcaucasus TCS
Türkiye TUR
Yemen YEM

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 329 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low -2.4 °C 4.7 °C 10.2 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 17.5 °C 22.2 °C 31.1 °C
Annual rainfall 520 mm 857 mm 1,872 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 7 mm 146 mm 278 mm

It is found where winters bring light 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 329 research-grade observations of Festuca bromoides 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 46 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.

  • Bromus ambiguus Cirillo
  • Bromus dertonensis All.
  • Distomomischus sciuroides (Roth) Dulac
  • Distomomischus subuniglumis Dulac
  • Festuca brachypoda Font Quer
  • Festuca bromoides var. altior Laterr.
  • Festuca bromoides var. ambigua (Cirillo) Guss.
  • Festuca bromoides var. nana Parn.
  • Festuca bromoides var. pseudomyuros Parn.
  • Festuca bromoides var. sciuroides (Roth) DC.
  • Festuca bromoides var. tenella Hook.f.
  • Festuca commutata Scheele
  • Festuca dertonensis (All.) Asch. & Graebn.
  • Festuca dertonensis var. gracilis (Lange) Asch. & Graebn.
  • Festuca dertonensis var. sciuroides (Roth) Briq.
  • Festuca geniculata var. monandra Döll
  • Festuca hordeiformis Wulfen ex Steud.
  • Festuca myuros subsp. sciuroides (Roth) Rouy
  • Festuca myuros var. bromoides (L.) Wimm. & Grab.
  • Festuca myuros var. dertonensis (All.) Knoche
  • Festuca myuros var. rothii Noulet
  • Festuca myuros var. sciuroides (Roth) Coss. & Durieu
  • Festuca onurus Willd. ex Spreng.
  • Festuca panormitana Guss.

and 22 more.

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. USDA PLANTS Database. common name, checklist symbol VUBR. public domain. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. 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.