Festuca pratensis
Tracheophyta
›Magnoliopsida›Poaceae›Festuca›Festuca pratensis
Ecology
A short-lived perennial found in a wide range of neutral grasslands, usually on fertile soils, including pastures, hay- and water-meadows. It is often sown for fodder and has become naturalised on roadsides, railway banks and waste ground. 0?575 m (Hartside, Cumberland) and exceptionally at 845 m on Great Dun Fell (Westmorland).
Status
Native
Trends
The native distribution of F. pratensis has been obscured by sowing, and it may only occur in N. & W. Britain and W. Ireland as a relic of cultivation. It may be decreasing due to the loss of wet meadows and a decline in its popularity in grass mixtures.
World Distribution
Eurosiberian Boreo-temperate element, but widely naturalised so that distribution is now Circumpolar Boreo-temperate.
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Broad Habitats
Neutral grassland (includes coarse Arrhenatherum grassland)
Light (Ellenberg): 7
Moisture (Ellenberg): 6
Reaction (Ellenberg): 6
Nitrogen (Ellenberg): 6
Salt Tolerance (Ellenberg): 0
January Mean Temperature (Celsius): 3.6
July Mean Temperature (Celsius): 14.9
Annual Precipitation (mm): 985
Height (cm): 80
Perennation - primary
Perennial
Life Form - primary
Hemicryptophyte
Woodiness
Herbaceous
Clonality - primary
Tussock-forming graminoid, may slowly spread
Count of 10km squares in Great Britain: 1976
Count of 10km squares in Ireland: 569
Count of 10km squares in the Channel Isles: 4
Atlas Change Index: -0.16
Weighted Changed Factor: -34
Weighted Change Factor Confidence (90%)
26
JNCC Designations
NHMSYS0000458788
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