Tufted Hairgrass

Deschampsia cespitosa cespitosa

Pollinator Value

❄️ Winter Food Source: Seeds consumed by Chipping Sparrow (17.4% occurrence), Field Sparrow (30.7% occurrence), Vesper Sparrow (16.7% occurrence), Mute Swan, and Tundra Swan at genus level (Deschampsia). Seed heads mature in summer and, though USDA reports low persistence, the dense tussock habit retains some seed into autumn for ground-feeding sparrows.
S57 S11

Proximity Score: 0
Native Status: ✅ Outaouais ✅ Ottawa ✅ QC ✅ ON
Closest Direction: Local
CEC Eco-Regions: 5 – Northern Forests, 5.2 – Mixed Wood Shield, 5.2.3 – Algonquin/Southern Laurentians
Rarity Notes: Globally secure (G5) and nationally secure in Canada (N5). Ranked S5 in Ontario. Not ranked in Quebec (SNR) but widely collected with 338 Quebec herbarium specimens in GBIF and listed as common in the Ottawa-Hull region by Gillett & White (1978). Not listed under SARA or COSEWIC.
S22 S48 S63 S26
Rarity Ranks: QC SNR – Not Ranked, ON S5 – Secure
Migration: Stable
Ecological Context: Tufted hairgrass occupies wet meadows, streambanks, rocky lakeshores, and damp open woodlands across the boreal-mixed-wood transition. In the Outaouais it is recorded from rocky shores (Kirks Ferry specimen) on seasonally flooded substrates. A cool-season bunchgrass tolerant of both acidic shield rock and calcareous valley soils, it anchors the herb layer in moist openings where canopy disturbance maintains light gaps.
S63 S48 S29 S11 S6

Roles: Fire Retardant
S73/S29/S72 Evidence: Fire Retardant: S73 [MEDIUM]: S11 Fire Tolerance = High (not definitional)]

✅ Edible

Foraging Notes: Seeds used as food by the Gosiute people of Utah. The small caryopses can be ground into flour or cooked as porridge, but the grain is very small and processing is labour-intensive. PFAF rates edibility 2 of 5.
S28 S29