Festuca burnatii

Description

Perennial grass plant, with short and vigorous rhizome covered with fibrils with which it can settle in medium with little substrate, forming dense cespitose covers (like grass). Basal leaves that hug the stem (leaf sheaths) about 5 mm wide, with free edges less at the base, attached to the stem by 7 mm membranous ligules; hairless and wrinkled transversely, and with sharp tip. The stems reach 25 cm in length, with a thickness of approximately 1 mm. Inflorescence in panicles or spikes pale green with violet spots, up to 9 mm, with two protective bracts. It is endemic to the Cantabrian mountain range, frequent in subalpine and montane grasslands, between 700 and 2000 msn, on limestone soil exposed to long periods of frost and summer thaws that change the structure of the land (cryoturbation). Also in fissures between limestone formations).