Boreal Fescue (Festuca hyperborea)
Description
Plants 2.5-10(-13.5) cm high; perennial herbs; caespitose. Only fibrous roots present. Ground level or underground stems absent. Aerial stems erect (loosely tufted; commonly appearing as a clump made up of numerous tufts which can be separated into distinct bundles of dead sheaths accumulating under leaves of the actively growing plant; tillering is often apparent in the stems that are surrounded by dead sheaths. Dead sheaths are pale grey or straw-cream-coloured). Leaves mainly basal (green, often purple, pinkish tinged, often re-curved); alternate; marcescent. Prophylls 7-10 mm long; with smooth veins (with a few scattered hairs); lacking pronounced keels. Petioles absent. Sheaths present; with the margins fused only in the lower part; glabrous; sheath collars present. Ligules present; 0.3-0.6 mm long; membranous; hairy (ciliate at the apex); transversely oblong. Ligule apices truncate (and higher on sides than middle); entire, or cleft. Leaves grass-like. Blades 10-60 mm long (-80 mm long when plants are grown in the greenhouse), 0.4-0.7 mm wide (when folded), reflexed (or re-curved basal leaves), folded in bud, linear, with sheath auricles or without auricles, folded, veins parallel, midvein similar in size to other veins in the leaf. Blade adaxial surface scabrous. Blade abaxial surface glabrous (appearing so, but with appressed hairs, see Aiken et al. 1994).
Taxonomic tree
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Domain: Eukarya
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Kingdom: Plantae
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Phylum: Magnoliophyta
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Class: Liliopsida
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Order: Poales
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Family: Poaceae
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Genus: Festuca
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