Poa arida |
Poa pringlei |
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Pringle's bluegrass |
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Habit | Plants perennial, dioecious, 5–35 cm tall; densely cespitose. | |
Culms | 0.5–0.9 mm thick; nodes 0(1) exserted. |
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Basal branching | intravaginal. |
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Leaves | sheaths terete, closed to 33% of their length, bases of basal sheaths glabrous, collar margins smooth or scabrous to hispidulous; ligules (0.5)1–6 mm long, translucent; tips truncate to acute, ligules of sterile shoots 1–2.5 mm long; blades involute, frequently somewhat arcuate, 1.5–3 mm wide; lower surfaces smooth; upper surfaces densely scabrous or hispidulous; cauline blades only slightly reduced higher on the culm. |
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Inflorescences | erect, narrowly lanceoloid to ovoid, moderately congested, 1–6 cm; spikelets 6–20(25); branches erect, 0.5–1.5(2)cm, 1–2 per node, with 1–3 spikelets. |
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Spikelets | broadly lanceolate; to 3.5 times as long as wide, 6–8(12) mm; shiny; florets 2–5; rachilla internodes smooth. |
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Glumes | lanceolate to broadly lanceolate, 3.5–7.5 mm, those of male plants shorter and with rounder tips than those of female plants; thin; shiny; almost transparent; keels smooth or sparsely scabrous; lower glumes slightly shorter than adjacent lemma, 3-veined. |
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Calluses | glabrous. |
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Lemmas | lanceolate, 5–8 mm, thinly membranous, distinctly keeled; smooth or sparsely finely scabrous, glabrous; tips acute. |
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Anthers | vestigial and 0.1–0.2 mm on female plants, 2–4 mm on male plants. |
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Poa arida |
Poa pringlei |
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Distribution | ||
Discussion | Rocky, subalpine and alpine slopes. 1200–2300m. Sisk. CA. Native. Poa pringlei is a dioecious grass with relatively long, nearly transparent glumes. It is cespitose, but the culms spread horizontally at the base, making it appear rhizomatous. |
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Source | Flora of Oregon, volume 1, page 464 Rob Soreng, Barbara Wilson, Richard Brainerd, Nick Otting |
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Sibling taxa | ||
Web links |