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Festuca alpina; photograph Kim Lotterman, CC BY-SA, via GBIF CC BY-SAKim Lotterman, CC BY-SA, via GBIF

Festuca alpina Suter

Poaceae · Austria, Czechoslovakia +6

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Festuca alpina, photograph Kim Lotterman, CC BY-SA, via GBIFFestuca alpina, photograph Krzysztof Ziarnek, Kenraiz, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia CommonsFestuca alpina, photograph Krzysztof Ziarnek, Kenraiz, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia CommonsFestuca alpina, photograph Dwindrim~enwiki, CC BY-SA 1.0, via Wikimedia Commons 5 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
-19.8°C
Record low -33.1 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
16°C
Jul and Aug at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,738mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
9–37DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Rain spread: 70% of the median year's rain takes 8 months, so no short rainy season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Festuca alpina, also known as the alphine fescue, is a species of grass in the genus Festuca. It grows in rocky habitats in many of the mountain chains across Europe, in the countries of Austria, Czechoslovakia, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Switzerland and Yugoslavia.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Festuca alpina", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads no short rainy season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,279 mm of 1,747 mm) takes 8 months, May to December. Mean temperature moves 19.5 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: November to June.

Rain

1,747 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,279 mm of it May to December. Wettest month July at 188 mm, driest month February at 100 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 1,240 mm to 2,329 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,738 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,747 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 9 to 37 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 6, the highest 90th-percentile month 43).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is -19.8 °C, the absolute minimum -33.1 °C, 8,512 frost nights in 44 years, 193.5 a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 23.6 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low -12.1 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range -16.9 °C to -7.6 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 16.3 °C in July (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: -19.8 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 58 to 63% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain. CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the grid cells of the range. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light. CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected +5 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Festuca alpina through the yearWarmest months July and August, mean daily high 16 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low -12.1 °C; 1,747 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA; the extremes at the edge from NASA POWER. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.-40°-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°frost23.6° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER-33.1° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200250300mm rainDLI 9–37RH 58–63%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 591 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low extremes over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, from NASA POWER, marked at the edge, in no month DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C-4 / -9–1-2 / -7–21 / -3–64 / 0–910 / 5–1414 / 10–1816 / 13–2016 / 12–2012 / 9–168 / 4–122 / -3–6-3 / -8–1
Night °C-12 / -17–-8-11 / -16–-7-8 / -12–-4-5 / -9–-1-1 / -4–43 / -1–76 / 2–106 / 2–103 / -1–7-1 / -5–3-7 / -12–-3-11 / -16–-6
Rain mm117 / 74–175100 / 59–149125 / 80–179126 / 89–166161 / 120–219177 / 110–246188 / 87–283186 / 98–268152 / 111–206142 / 102–194137 / 99–181136 / 88–193
DLI11 / 8–1417 / 13–2125 / 21–3033 / 29–3736 / 33–4037 / 33–4137 / 33–4332 / 28–3725 / 21–2917 / 14–2111 / 8–159 / 6–12
RH %58 / 55–6259 / 56–6260 / 58–6362 / 60–6462 / 61–6463 / 60–6562 / 57–6462 / 58–6563 / 60–6561 / 59–6461 / 57–6459 / 56–63
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 591 grid cells holding the 810 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 875:3736 (46.225, 6.825). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -33.1 °C, 1st-percentile night -19.8 °C, 99th-percentile day 23.6 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 591 distinct grid cells holding 810 of the 810 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 875:3736 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 46.00_6.875, lapse-corrected +5 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 1719 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeAustria, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Switzerland, France, Spain, Italy, Yugoslavia · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker45.941, 6.809 · in the densest population, 560 records (56% of those in range)
Kew's description“perennial” · “temperate” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 1003 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 810 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 779 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 14 km away. 8 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 193 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 2° block of the 1003 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Festuca alpina, photograph 1did not loadFestuca alpina, photograph 2did not loadFestuca alpina, photograph 3did not loadFestuca alpina, photograph 4did not load

Photographs: Kim Lotterman, CC BY-SA, via GBIF; Krzysztof Ziarnek, Kenraiz, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (2); Dwindrim~enwiki, CC BY-SA 1.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Achillea macrophylla Achillea macrophylla Large-leaved Sneezewort Photo: CC0, author not statedCrepis aurea Crepis aurea Golden hawk's-beard Photo: CC BY, EliasOxytropis montana Oxytropis montana Fabaceae Photo: CC BY, Matteo MartiniCampanula scheuchzeri Campanula scheuchzeri Campanulaceae Photo: CC BY, Martin ScheidlederGentiana acaulis Gentiana acaulis Gentian Photo: CC BY, Antoine ThivollePhyteuma betonicifolium Phyteuma betonicifolium Betony-leaved Rampion Photo: CC BY, Wolfgang Ahlmer

Other Festuca 61 in the reference

Festuca actae Festuca actae Banks Peninsula blue tussock Photo: CC BY, Oscar DoveFestuca airoides Festuca airoides Tufted fescue Photo: CC BY, Flavien Saboureau Festuca alaica Poaceae Festuca altissima Festuca altissima Wood fescue Photo: CC BY, Наталья ПикаловаFestuca amethystina Festuca amethystina Amethyst Fescue Photo: CC BY, Christian Berg Festuca apuanica Poaceae Festuca arvernensis Festuca arvernensis Field fescue Photo: CC BY, Guillaume Petit Festuca asperula Poaceae Festuca beckeri Festuca beckeri Poaceae Photo: CC BY, Stanislav MurashkinFestuca bosniaca Festuca bosniaca Poaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, ЈугFestuca brachyphylla Festuca brachyphylla Short-leaved fescue Photo: CC BY, Ida B D JacobsenFestuca bromoides Festuca bromoides Brome fescue Photo: CC BY, Sarah Richardson all 62 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Festuca alpina subsp. alpina; Festuca alpina subsp. riverae; Festuca alpina var. gaucheri; Festuca alpina var. subviolacea; Festuca alpina var. suteri and 8 more. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipedia

The record

Family
Poaceae
Described by
Suter
Native to
Austria, Czechoslovakia, Germany +5
Wild records
1003 in range · 779 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-22
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 9 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (9 at a botanic garden or arboretum; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 46.00_6.875, lapse-corrected +5 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist taxon inat.taxon not asked
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild not asked
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-22
Wikimedia Commons commons answeredasked 2026-10-22
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 81 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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