''Festuca edlundiae'', commonly known as Edlund's fescue, is a native, perennial tufted grass found in Alaska, Canadian arctic islands, northern Greenland, far eastern arctic Russia and

Svalbard Svalbard ( , ), also known as Spitsbergen, or Spitzbergen, is a Norwegian archipelago in the Arctic Ocean. North of mainland Europe, it is about midway between the northern coast of Norway and the North Pole. The islands of the group range ...

. The

specific name Specific name may refer to: * in Database management systems, a system-assigned name that is unique within a particular database In taxonomy, either of these two meanings, each with its own set of rules: * Specific name (botany), the two-part (bino ...

honours Doctor

Sylvia Edlund Sylvia Anita Edlund (August 15, 1945 – November 15, 2014) was a Canadian botanist. '' Festuca edlundiae,'' commonly known as Edlund's fescue, a high arctic grass, was named in her honour for her extensive contributions to Arctic field wor ...

, a Canadian botanist. It was first described by Susan Aiken, Laurie Consaul and Leonard Lefkovitch in 1995.

Description

It is closely related to ''

Festuca brachyphylla ''Festuca brachyphylla'', commonly known as alpine fescue or short-leaved fescue, is a grass native to Eurasia, North America, and the Arctic. The grass is used for erosion control and revegetation. The specific epithet ''brachyphylla'' means "sh ...

''. The plant is similar to boreal fescue ('' Festuca hyperborea'') but has flag leaf (final leaf) blades that are 5 mm or longer and has larger spikelets. It grows in dense clumps without

rhizome In botany and dendrology, a rhizome (; , ) is a modified subterranean plant stem that sends out roots and shoots from its nodes. Rhizomes are also called creeping rootstalks or just rootstalks. Rhizomes develop from axillary buds and grow hori ...

Habitat

The plant grows in the High Arctic in fine-grained and calcareous soils.

References

External links

* * edlundiae Grasses of Canada Grasses of the United States Grasses of Russia Flora of Northern America Flora of Northern Europe Plants described in 1995 {{Pooideae-stub