Montana Field Guide

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Montana Field Guides

Home - Other Field Guides
- Kingdom - Plants - Plantae
  - Division - Flowering Plants - Anthophyta
    - Class - Monocots - Monocotyledoneae
      - Order - Grasses/Sedges - Cyperales
        
        Family - Grasses - Poaceae
        
        Species - Baffin Fescue - Festuca baffinensis

Baffin Fescue - Festuca baffinensis

Status Under Review
Native Species

Global Rank: G5
State Rank: SU
C-value:

Agency Status
USFWS:
USFS:
BLM:

General Description

Perennial bunchgrass. Stems 10–20 cm. Leaves: blades ca. 1 mm wide, inrolled. Inflorescence a narrow panicle 1–3 cm long, the peduncle hairy and usually pigmented with a dark purplish color. Spikelets 4–7 mm long with 3 to 4 florets. Lemmas with an awn tip or awn up to 2.5 mm long (Lavin in Lesica et al. 2012. Manual of Montana Vascular Plants. BRIT Press. Fort Worth, TX).

Species Range

Montana Range Range Descriptions

Native

Range Comments

Circumpolar south to UT and CO (Lavin in Lesica et al. 2012. Manual of Montana Vascular Plants. BRIT Press. Fort Worth, TX).

Observations in Montana Natural Heritage Program Database

Number of Observations: 41

(Click on the following maps and charts to see full sized version) Map Help and Descriptions

Relative Density

Recency

(Observations spanning multiple months or years are excluded from time charts)

Habitat

Alpine meadows (Lavin in Lesica et al. 2012. Manual of Montana Vascular Plants. BRIT Press. Fort Worth, TX).

Stewardship Responsibility

References

Literature Cited AboveLegend: View Online Publication
- Lesica, P., M.T. Lavin, and P.F. Stickney. 2012. Manual of Montana Vascular Plants. Fort Worth, TX: BRIT Press. viii + 771 p.
Additional ReferencesLegend: View Online Publication
Do you know of a citation we're missing?
- Lesica, P., M.T. Lavin, and P.F. Stickney. 2022. Manual of Montana Vascular Plants, Second Edition. Fort Worth, TX: BRIT Press. viii + 779 p.
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Citation for data on this website:
Baffin Fescue — Festuca baffinensis. Montana Field Guide. Montana Natural Heritage Program. Retrieved on June 16, 2026, from https://FieldGuide.mt.gov/speciesDetail.aspx?elcode=PMPOA2V060