Festuca rupicolaHeuff.

WFO wfo-0000872004 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 6 observations

This species has been photographed under an open licence only 6 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 rupicola, photographed by Christian Berg
fig. a Christian Berg, CC BY 4.0 / 2020-06-01 / obs. 76549596

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.

The specimen a real sheet, in a real collection

Herbarium
Smithsonian, US National Herbarium
Accession
US 3600658
Filed as
Festuca rupicola Heuff.
Det. by
Soreng, Robert J., Research Associate (BOT), Smithsonian Institution - National Museum of Natural History (UNITED STATES)
Collected
R. J. Soreng, D. Johnson, P. Johnson, N. Dzyubenko & E. Dzyubenko 2010-07-17
Origin
RU
The sheet
View the digitised specimen (CC0 1.0)

A real pressed plant, in a real collection, under the accession number above. Not an illustration of one. The holding institution does not serve this sheet’s image to third parties, so there is no photograph here. The record is real and the link goes to it. Where we hold no openly licensed sheet for a species this section is simply absent, and where a sheet never recorded who determined it, that field stays empty rather than being filled in. Roughly half of all herbarium sheets never recorded a determiner, which is ordinary.

Native range 35 botanical countries

Regions where Festuca rupicola is native: Algeria, Morocco, Afghanistan, Altay, China North-Central, China South-Central, Inner Mongolia, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kirgizstan, Manchuria, North Caucasus, Saudi Arabia, Tadzhikistan, Tibet, Transcaucasus, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, West Siberia, Xinjiang, Austria, Belarus, Bulgaria, Central European Russia, Czechia-Slovakia, East European Russia, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, NW. Balkan Pen., Poland, Romania, South European Russia, Ukraine AlgeriaMoroccoAfghanistanAltayChina North-CentralChina South-CentralInner MongoliaIranKazakhstanKirgizstanManchuriaNorth CaucasusSaudi ArabiaTadzhikistanTibetTranscaucasusTurkmenistanUzbekistanWest SiberiaXinjiangAustriaBelarusBulgariaCentral European RussiaCzechia-SlovakiaEast European RussiaFranceGermanyHungaryItalyNW. Balkan Pen.PolandRomaniaSouth European RussiaUkraine
Native distribution of Festuca rupicola, 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
Afghanistan AFG ASIA-TEMPERATE
Altay ALT
China North-Central CHN
China South-Central CHC
Inner Mongolia CHI
Iran IRN
Kazakhstan KAZ
Kirgizstan KGZ
Manchuria CHM
North Caucasus NCS
Saudi Arabia SAU
Tadzhikistan TZK
Tibet CHT
Transcaucasus TCS
Turkmenistan TKM
Uzbekistan UZB
West Siberia WSB
Xinjiang CHX
Austria AUT EUROPE
Belarus BLR
Bulgaria BUL
Central European Russia RUC
Czechia-Slovakia CZE
East European Russia RUE
France FRA
Germany GER
Hungary HUN
Italy ITA
NW. Balkan Pen. YUG
Poland POL
Romania ROM
South European Russia RUS
Ukraine UKR
Algeria ALG AFRICA
Morocco MOR

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 121 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low -13.8 °C -5.1 °C -3.1 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 21.1 °C 25.3 °C 27.1 °C
Annual rainfall 502 mm 621 mm 1,508 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 82 mm 108 mm 187 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 121 research-grade observations of Festuca rupicola 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 84 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.

  • Festuca anceps Kit.
  • Festuca colorata Schur
  • Festuca duernsteinensis J.Vetter
  • Festuca duriuscula f. inaequata Kit. ex Hack.
  • Festuca duriuscula f. pauciflora Heuff.
  • Festuca ganeschinii Drobow
  • Festuca glaberrima Schur
  • Festuca glaberrima f. glaberrima
  • Festuca granitica J.Vetter
  • Festuca megaphylla Schur
  • Festuca ovina subsp. sulcata Hack.
  • Festuca ovina subvar. barbulata Hack.
  • Festuca ovina subvar. hispida Hack.
  • Festuca ovina subvar. sulcatiformis Markgr.-Dann.
  • Festuca ovina var. sulcata Hack.
  • Festuca ovina var. sulcatiformis Markgr.-Dann.
  • Festuca pallens subsp. colorata (Schur) Breistr.
  • Festuca recognita Reverd.
  • Festuca recognita f. glabra Reverd.
  • Festuca recognita f. subglabrata Reverd.
  • Festuca rupicola f. almasului (A.Nyár. & Serb.) Beldie
  • Festuca rupicola f. ciliata (Podp.) Soó
  • Festuca rupicola f. colorata (Schur) Beldie
  • Festuca rupicola f. colorata (Schur) Soó

and 60 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. 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.