Poa annua |
Poa macrantha |
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annual bluegrass |
seashore bluegrass |
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Habit | Plants annual, rarely biennial, 2–20(45)cm tall; cespitose. | Plants perennial, dioecious, (7)15–60 cm tall; loosely cespitose, rhizomatous, and stoloniferous, rhizomes and stolons to 400 cm long. |
Culms | nodes terete or weakly compressed. |
stout, 1.5–2 mm thick; nodes terete, 0(1) exserted. |
Basal branching | intravaginal. |
mainly intravaginal; some extravaginal. |
Leaves | sheaths closed about 33% of their length; ligules 0.5–3(5) mm; blades flat or weakly folded, 1–10 cm × 1–3(6)mm; smooth. |
sheaths closed about 50% of their length, bases of basal sheaths glabrous; collars smooth, glabrous; ligules 1–5 mm; blades moderately to densely scabrous or minutely hairy on and between veins, blades of tillers to 30 cm; cauline blades involute; somewhat arcuate, 2–4 mm wide; uppermost blades 1–10 cm. |
Inflorescences | 1–7(10)cm; branches ascending to spreading or reflexed. |
erect; ovoid to lanceolate, contracted, often interrupted, 3–15 cm; spikelets 15–80; branches 1-2; erect, 1–6 cm; stiff, with 3–17 spikelets. |
Spikelets | 3–5 mm long; florets 2–6; rachilla internodes smooth, glabrous; more or less concealed, occasionally exposed; distal rachilla internode less than 50(75)% of the length of distal lemma. |
9–17 mm; to 3 times as long as wide; florets 3–6(10). |
Glumes | lower glumes smooth, 1-veined. |
broadly lanceolate, subequal to adjacent florets; keels sparsely scabrous near tips; lower glumes 3-veined; upper glumes usually more than 7 mm, 3–5-veined. |
Calluses | glabrous. |
usually with a line of crisp to sinuous hairs around the base of the lemma, sometimes glabrous or with diffuse; short; cobwebby hairs. |
Lemmas | lanceolate, 2.5–4 mm, keeled; smooth; keels; marginal veins; and usually intermediate veins crisply puberulent to long-villous, rarely glabrous; area between veins glabrous; tips obtuse to acute. |
lanceolate; (6)7.5–11 mm, 5–7(11)-veined, distinctly keeled; keels and marginal veins, sometimes also intermediate veins; short-villous to softly puberulent; area between veins smooth to scabrous, glabrous or softly puberulent; tips acute. |
Anthers | 0.6–1.1 mm, oblong. |
vestigial and 0.1–0.2 mm, or (2)3–4(5)mm. |
2n | =28. |
=28. |
Poa annua |
Poa macrantha |
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Distribution | ||
Discussion | Disturbed areas, parking lots, lawns, shores. 0–1700m. BR, BW, Casc, Col, CR, Est, Lava, Sisk, WV. CA, ID, NV, WA; throughout southern Canada and US; worldwide. Exotic. Poa annua is a small but abundant annual with spreading inflorescence branches and oblong anthers. Poa infirma is very similar but has ascending inflorescence branches and shorter, nearly spherical anthers. Poa supina, supine bluegrass, has inflorescences similar to P. annua, but it is a stoloniferous perennial with longer anthers. It is planted on shady golf courses and lawns where it forms dense, spongy turf. It has not been found in the wild in Oregon but is expected to escape here. |
Coastal sand dunes. 0–100m. Est. CA, WA; north to AK. Native. |
Source | Flora of Oregon, volume 1, page 453 Rob Soreng, Barbara Wilson, Richard Brainerd, Nick Otting |
Flora of Oregon, volume 1, page 460 Rob Soreng, Barbara Wilson, Richard Brainerd, Nick Otting |
Sibling taxa | ||
Web links |
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