About Festuca altaica Trin.
Festuca altaica Trin. is a densely tufted perennial grass. Its tufts are connected by short rhizomes. Flowering stems, called culms, are usually 30 to 90 cm (1 to 3 ft) tall, though they can grow as tall as 120 cm (4 ft). The upper, adaxial leaf surface is densely covered with short hairs. A ligule is present, and measures 0.1 to 0.6 mm (0.004 to 0.024 in) long. Its inflorescence takes the form of a loose panicle. Spikelets are 8 to 14 mm (0.3 to 0.6 in) long, colored purple to brown, and each holds 3 to 6 individual florets. Festuca altaica flowers and produces fruit from late spring through fall. This grass has a wide Arctic distribution. In temperate Asia, it is native to Siberia, the Russian Far East, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, and Xinjiang, China. In North America, it grows throughout the subarctic, in western Canada, in parts of eastern Canada including Labrador, Newfoundland, and Quebec, and extends into Michigan in the United States. A large area of grassland in the Canadian province of Alberta, in the Canadian Prairies region, hosts this species. Under the synonym Festuca scabrella, rough fescue (Festuca altaica) is the provincial grass of Alberta.
