Festuca saximontanaRydb.

Rocky Mountain fescue

WFO wfo-0000872061 Accepted WFO 2026-06 7 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–g · 4 observations

This species has been photographed under an open licence only 4 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 saximontana, photographed by Doug Macaulay
fig. a Doug Macaulay, CC BY 4.0 / 2020-07-20 / obs. 85503580
Festuca saximontana, photographed by Allan Harris
fig. b Allan Harris, CC0 1.0 / obs. 108734320
Festuca saximontana, photographed by Doug Macaulay
fig. c Doug Macaulay, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 85502363
Festuca saximontana, photographed by Allan Harris
fig. d Allan Harris, CC0 1.0 / obs. 50461262
Festuca saximontana, photographed by Allan Harris
fig. e Allan Harris, CC0 1.0 / obs. 50461256
Festuca saximontana, photographed by Doug Macaulay
fig. f Doug Macaulay, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 85894090
Festuca saximontana, photographed by Allan Harris
fig. g Allan Harris, CC0 1.0 / obs. 108734180

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 36 botanical countries

Regions where Festuca saximontana is native: Magadan, Alaska, Alberta, Arizona, British Columbia, California, Colorado, Greenland, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Labrador, Manitoba, Mexico Northeast, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, Newfoundland, North Dakota, Northwest Territories, Nunavut, Ontario, Oregon, Québec, Saskatchewan, South Dakota, Utah, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin, Wyoming, Yukon MagadanAlaskaAlbertaArizonaBritish ColumbiaCaliforniaColoradoGreenlandIdahoIowaKansasLabradorManitobaMexico NortheastMichiganMinnesotaMontanaNebraskaNevadaNew MexicoNew YorkNewfoundlandNorth DakotaNorthwest TerritoriesNunavutOntarioOregonQuébecSaskatchewanSouth DakotaUtahVermontWashingtonWisconsinWyomingYukon
Native distribution of Festuca saximontana, 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
Alaska ASK NORTHERN AMERICA
Alberta ABT
Arizona ARI
British Columbia BRC
California CAL
Colorado COL
Greenland GNL
Idaho IDA
Iowa IOW
Kansas KAN
Labrador LAB
Manitoba MAN
Mexico Northeast MXE
Michigan MIC
Minnesota MIN
Montana MNT
Nebraska NEB
Nevada NEV
New Mexico NWM
New York NWY
Newfoundland NFL
North Dakota NDA
Northwest Territories NWT
Nunavut NUN
Ontario ONT
Oregon ORE
Québec QUE
Saskatchewan SAS
South Dakota SDA
Utah UTA
Vermont VER
Washington WAS
Wisconsin WIS
Wyoming WYO
Yukon YUK
Magadan MAG ASIA-TEMPERATE

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 51 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low -22.5 °C -16.4 °C -9.9 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 15.0 °C 21.7 °C 26.2 °C
Annual rainfall 349 mm 496 mm 1,116 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 40 mm 63 mm 221 mm

It is found where winters are severely cold. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 51 research-grade observations of Festuca saximontana 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 12 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 brachyphylla subsp. saximontana (Rydb.) Hultén
  • Festuca brachyphylla var. rydbergii (Gleason) A.Cronquist
  • Festuca canadensis E.B.Alexeev
  • Festuca ovina f. purpurascens Hayata
  • Festuca ovina f. saximontana (Rydb.) Carpenter
  • Festuca ovina subsp. saximontana (Rydb.) St.-Yves
  • Festuca ovina var. purpurascens (Hayata) Honda
  • Festuca ovina var. rydbergii St.-Yves
  • Festuca ovina var. saximontana (Rydb.) Gleason
  • Festuca saximontana subsp. saximontana
  • Festuca saximontana var. robertsiana Pavlick
  • Festuca saximontana var. saximontana

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. Wikidata. common name (P1843), joined on the World Flora Online identifier (P7715). CC0. 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.