Family: Poaceae

Origin, Description & Uses
Festuca rubra (creeping fescue, red fescue) is a cool-season perennial grass native to Europe, Asia, and parts of North America. It is a fine-textured, low-growing grass that spreads by rhizomes, forming dense mats. This species is widely used for turf, lawns, erosion control, and pasture due to its tolerance of shade, poor soils, and cooler climates. It is also commonly included in seed mixes for landscaping and groundcover because of its ability to establish quickly and persist under a variety of conditions.

Risks & Threats
In Hawaiʻi, Festuca rubra is naturalized on Oʻahu, Maui, and Hawaiʻi Island, and is potentially naturalizing on Kauaʻi. This species possesses traits that are cause for concern, including its ability to spread vegetatively and form dense ground cover that can outcompete native plants. It can alter plant community structure, reduce biodiversity, and persist in disturbed as well as semi-natural habitats. Because of these characteristics, creeping fescue could detrimentally impact tropical island ecosystems by displacing native vegetation and changing ecosystem dynamics.

High Risk Traits:

• Broad natural distribution, and elevation range exceeds 1000 m, demonstrating environmental versatility
  
• Primarily temperate distribution, but reported to occur in regions with subtropical climates
  
• Naturalized on Maui and Hawaii (Hawaiian Islands), and elsewhere
  
• A disturbance adapted weed with potential impacts to agriculture, and reported to impact native vegetation in Australia and New Zealand
  
• Other Festuca species are invasive
  
• Allelopathic
  
• Some varieties contain endophytes that in high levels may be harmful to livestock
  
• A severe allergen. Pollen can cause hay fever
  
• Reported to be both shade tolerant and shade intolerant. Relatively high light levels in Hawaiian ecosystems may not be a limiting factor for establishment of this species
  
• Tolerates many soil types
  
• Able to form dense cover that may exclude other vegetation
  
• Reproduces by seeds and vegetatively by rhizomes
  
• Naturally hybridizes with other grass species
  
• Seeds dispersed by machinery, as a contaminant, wind, water, internally and externally by animals, and intentionally by people
  
• Tolerates and resprouts after fire

Low Risk Traits:

• Despite potential weediness, valued as a ground cover and for erosion control
  
• Unarmed (no spines, thorns, or burrs)
  
• Palatable to grazing animals
  
• Reported to be self-incompatible
  
• Does not form a persistent seed bank