Poa cusickii |
Poa cusickii ssp. epilis |
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Cusick's bluegrass |
skyline bluegrass |
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Habit | Plants perennial, gynodioecious, or all pistillate, 10–60(70)cm long, usually densely cespitose with short rhizomes. | Plants all pistillate, 20–45 cm tall; densely cespitose. |
Culms | 0.5–1.8 mm thick; nodes terete, 0–2 exserted. |
mostly erect; nodes 1–2; well exserted. |
Basal branching | intravaginal or intra- and extravaginal. |
intra- and extravaginal. |
Leaves | sheaths closed 25–75% of their length, bases of basal sheaths glabrous; collars smooth or scabrous, glabrous, ligules of cauline leaves 1–3(6)mm; tips truncate to acute, ligules of sterile shoots 0.2– 0.5(2.5)mm; tips usually truncate; blades involute to flat, 0.2– 3.5 mm wide; all about equal or the upper ones slightly reduced in length; upper surface usually densely scabrous or hispidulous to softly puberulent, infrequently nearly smooth and glabrous; lower surface smooth or scabrous; uppermost blade 0.5–5(6)cm. |
sheaths closed 33–75% of their length, blades of sterile shoots 0.7– 1 mm wide, blades of cauline leaves flat or folded; more than 1.5 mm wide; uppermost blades 1.5–5 cm long; about 40% as long as their sheaths. |
Inflorescences | usually erect, tightly or loosely contracted, narrowly lanceoloid to ovoid, 2–10(12) cm; spikelets 10–100; branches erect or steeply ascending, 0.5–4(5)cm long, 1–3(5) per node, with 1–15 spikelets. |
usually contracted, usually 2–7 cm; spikelets 20–70; branches 1–3 cm; smooth to sparsely scabrous, with 1–8 spikelets. |
Spikelets | broadly lanceolate to narrowly ovate; to 3 times as long as wide; (3)4–10 mm; florets 2–6; rachilla internodes 0.5–1.2 mm long. |
(3)4–8 mm. |
Glumes | lanceolate; lower glumes 3-veined, distinctly shorter than the lowest lemma. |
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Calluses | glabrous or with short; sparse, sometimes diffuse cobwebby hairs less than 25% of the lemma length. |
glabrous. |
Lemmas | lanceolate to broadly lanceolate; (3)4–7 mm, distinctly keeled, membranous; smooth or sparsely to densely scabrous, glabrous throughout, or keels and/or marginal veins softly puberulent near the base; tips acute. |
3–6 mm, glabrous or scabrous. |
Anthers | vestigial and 0.1–0.2 mm, aborted late in development, or well developed and 2–3.5 mm. |
usually aborted late in development. |
2n | =56. |
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Poa cusickii |
Poa cusickii ssp. epilis |
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Distribution | ||
Discussion | 4 subspecies. Poa cusickii is a common upland bluegrass with a dense inflorescence. It is usually densely cespitose, though some plants may have short rhizomes. Similar P. fendleriana has reduced uppermost flag blades, and lemmas with silky hairs on the keels and marginal veins. Poa leibergii has narrower leaves and usually longer ligules. Poa wheeleri can be misidentified as P. cusickii if the specimen is collected without its distinctive scabrous leaf sheaths. Poa pringlei, restricted to southwestern Oregon near the California border, has longer ligules, sheaths closed to about a third their length, and glabrous (to scabrous) lemmas. It is dioecious, whereas P. cusickii plants are bisexual or entirely pistillate. |
Subalpine and alpine meadows, thickets, and rocky slopes. 1000–3000 m. BR, BW, Casc. North to British Columbia, southeast to CO. Native. Poa cusickii ssp. epilis is similar to P. c. ssp. purpurascens, which has some hairs on the lemmas and calluses, longer lemmas, fewer and longer spikelets, and both intra- and extravaginal branching. Both are coarser plants than P. c. sspp. cusickii and pallida. |
Source | Flora of Oregon, volume 1, page 455 Rob Soreng, Barbara Wilson, Richard Brainerd, Nick Otting |
Flora of Oregon, volume 1, page 456 Rob Soreng, Barbara Wilson, Richard Brainerd, Nick Otting |
Sibling taxa | ||
Subordinate taxa | ||
Synonyms | Poa cusickii var. epilis, Poa epilis | |
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