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Leiberg's bluegrass

Habit Plants perennial, gynodioecious, 5–35 cm tall; densely cespitose.
Culms

0.5–0.7 mm thick;

nodes 0–1 exserted.

Basal branching

intravaginal.

Leaves

sheaths closed 40–60% of their length, bases of basal sheaths glabrous;

collars smooth, glabrous;

ligules (1)2–4 mm long; hyaline; smooth, sterile shoot ligules like those of the culm leaves, blades of tillers with lower surfaces smooth or sparsely scabrous;

cauline blades flat, folded or involute, 0.5–1(1.5)mm wide, usually soon withering; smooth or sparsely scabrous.

Inflorescences

erect to lax, lanceoloid to ovoid or pyramidal, contracted to open, 1–5(8) cm;

spikelets (1)6–17(22);

branches erect to spreading; slender, 1–4 cm, 1–2 per node, with 1–2(3) spikelets.

Spikelets

broadly lanceolate to broadly ovate; to 3 times as long as wide, 4–8 mm;

florets 2–3;

rachilla internodes glabrous.

Glumes

thin; somewhat shiny;

lower glumes 3-veined, distinctly shorter than the lowest lemma.

Calluses

glabrous.

Lemmas

lanceolate, 3.5–7 mm, distinctly keeled, thinly membranous; smooth or scabrous, glabrous;

tips acute to truncate and erose.

Anthers

vestigial and 0.1–0.2 mm, or 1.3–3 mm.

Poa douglasii

Poa leibergii

Distribution
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Wet rock ledges, vernal pools, edges of wet meadows, in sagebrush steppe to alpine habitats. 50–2900m. BW, Col, ECas, Lava. ID, NV, WA. Native.

Poa leibergii is a cespitose upland species, lacking cobwebby callus hairs. It is most likely to be confused with P. cusickii ssp. cusickii, which has shorter ligules on the leaves of vegetative shoots and more condensed panicles with more spikelets.

Source Flora of Oregon, volume 1, page 458
Rob Soreng, Barbara Wilson, Richard Brainerd, Nick Otting
Sibling taxa
P. alpina, P. annua, P. bolanderi, P. bulbosa, P. chambersii, P. compressa, P. confinis, P. cusickii, P. fendleriana, P. glauca, P. howellii, P. iconia, P. infirma, P. laxiflora, P. leibergii, P. leptocoma, P. lettermanii, P. macrantha, P. mansfieldii, P. marcida, P. nemoralis, P. nervosa, P. palustris, P. piperi, P. pratensis, P. pringlei, P. reflexa, P. rhizomata, P. secunda, P. stenantha, P. suksdorfii, P. trivialis, P. unilateralis, P. wallowensis, P. wheeleri
P. alpina, P. annua, P. bolanderi, P. bulbosa, P. chambersii, P. compressa, P. confinis, P. cusickii, P. fendleriana, P. glauca, P. howellii, P. iconia, P. infirma, P. laxiflora, P. leptocoma, P. lettermanii, P. macrantha, P. mansfieldii, P. marcida, P. nemoralis, P. nervosa, P. palustris, P. piperi, P. pratensis, P. pringlei, P. reflexa, P. rhizomata, P. secunda, P. stenantha, P. suksdorfii, P. trivialis, P. unilateralis, P. wallowensis, P. wheeleri
Synonyms Poa vaseyochloa
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