Tall fescue

Tall fescue, a cool season perennial grass, forms clumps with upright leaves. It is found throughout California, except the Great Basin and deserts, to about 8900 feet (2700 m). Tall fescue is especially invasive in coastal scrub and grassland on the North and Central Coast. It also inhabits other disturbed dry or wet areas. It is widely planted for pasture, turf, hay, and erosion control, but has escaped cultivation. New tall fescue turf cultivars may be less invasive. Sometimes tall fescue is infected with a fungus,Acremonium coenophialum. Livestock that graze on pasture infected with this fungus exhibit a wide variety of chronic health problems.

Tall fescue grows in clumps and can reach 6-1/2 feet (2 m) tall. Stems are coarse, round in cross-section, and have visible stem joints (nodes). Leaves are rolled, loosely rolled, or flat before they open from the bud. Blades are up to 2/5” (1 cm) wide, 4 to 28 inches (10–70 cm) long, dark green, slightly glossy, coarse, with rasplike edges, and radiate from a central clump. Although similar in appearance to dallisgrass, Paspalum dilatatum, tall and meadow fescues are distinguished by growing in tighter clumps, versus the loose bunches formed by dallisgrass.