Festuca occidentalis Hook.

vernacular western fescue — species · Poaceae

USDA: FEOC
GBIF: 2705003
Rank: species

western fescue (Festuca occidentalis) — Platephotograph · Keir MorseCC BY-NC-ND source · iNaturalist ↗

§2Habit & range

Growth habit: Graminoid
Duration: Perennial
Group: Monocot
Family: Poaceae Barnhart
Genus: Festuca

§2a

Native status, by region

AK Alaska Native
CAN Canada Native
L48 Lower 48 States Native

§2b

County-level range

· 19 counties across 2 states/territories

Legend Native · 19 Introduced · 0 Both · 0 Hover a county for detail.

§3Cultivation specs · USDA

Recorded by the USDA Plant Materials Program.

§3a

Tolerances

Drought: High
Shade: Low
Moisture use: Low
Fire: High
Salinity: None
Anaerobic: None
CaCO₃: Low
Hedging: None

§3b

Climate & soil

Cold tolerance: -43 °F minimum
Frost-free days: 100 min.
Precipitation: 14–45 in/yr
pH range: 6–7.5
Root depth: 10 in min.
Fertility need: Low
Soil texture: coarse, medium

§3c

Form & growth

Growth form: Bunch
Growth rate: Moderate
Lifespan: Short
Mature height: 3 ft
Foliage texture: Medium
Foliage colour: Dark Green
Porosity (summer): Moderate
Porosity (winter): Porous
Flower colour: Yellow
Fruit colour: Brown
Fire resistant: No
N fixation: None
Toxicity: None

§3d

Reproduction

Bloom period: Spring
Seed abundance: High
Seed begins: Spring
Seed ends: Summer
Spread rate: Slow
Stratify: No
Seeds / lb: 348,000
Propagation: seed

§3e

Use & availability

Commercial availability: Contracting Only
Nursery stock: No
Browse palatability: High
Graze palatability: High
Palatable, human: No
Protein potential: Medium
Lumber: No
Christmas tree: No

§4Counties, by state

Recorded in 19 counties across 2 states/territories.

§5Sources & provenance

USDA PLANTS

Symbol, taxonomy, distribution, cultivation specs, native status. Public domain.

plants.usda.gov/FEOC ↗

GBIF Backbone

Canonical taxonomic identity, synonym resolution, cross-refs. CC0.

gbif.org/species/2705003 ↗

Record version

Cached and built locally. Source version on this record:

usda-plants-mt-2026-05-26

fetched 2026-05-26T07:25:30Z