Poa lettermanii |
Poa confinis |
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Letterman's bluegrass |
coastline bluegrass |
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Habit | Plants perennial, 1–12 cm tall; densely cespitose. | |
Culms | slender; nodes terete, 0–1 exserted. |
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Basal branching | intra- and extravaginal or mainly intravaginal. |
mainly intravaginal; some extravaginal. |
Leaves | sheaths closed to 25% of their length; ligules 1–3 mm; blades flat or folded, or slightly inrolled, 0.5–2 mm wide. |
sheaths closed 33–50% of their length; smooth, bases of basal sheaths glabrous; collars smooth, glabrous; ligules 0.5–1.5(2.2) mm, blades of tillers with upper surface moderately to densely scabrous or very short-hairy on and between the veins; cauline blades involute, mostly filiform, 0.5–1(1.5)mm wide; lower surfaces smooth; upper surfaces sparsely scabrous on and between the veins; uppermost blade (0.5)1–5 cm long. |
Inflorescences | erect, contracted, 1–3 cm long, usually exserted from the sheaths; branches erect to steeply ascending; slender; to 1.5 cm. |
erect; ovoid, moderately to loosely congested, 1–5(7)cm; spikelets fewer than 50; branches erect to ascending, slightly lax, 0.5–3 cm, 1–2 per node. |
Spikelets | 3–4 mm, green or purple; florets 2–3; rachilla internodes less than 1 mm long; smooth. |
to 3 times as long as wide; compact, 3–6(8)mm; florets 2–5; rachilla internodes glabrous or sparsely softly puberulent. |
Glumes | lanceolate to broadly lanceolate, 2.4– 3.6(4) mm, usually equaling or exceeding the lowest lemma, frequently exceeding the upper florets; lower glumes 3-veined. |
slightly unequal; keels smooth or scabrous; lower glumes 2–4 mm long, 1–3-veined; about 67% as long as the lowest lemma; upper glumes 2.9– 5 mm long. |
Calluses | glabrous. |
with sparse; diffuse; cobwebby hairs 1–2 mm, infrequently glabrous. |
Lemmas | lanceolate, 2.5–3 mm long, distinctly keeled; thin, glabrous; keels and marginal veins rarely sparsely puberulent; tips acute. |
lanceolate, 2.5– 4(4.5)mm, distinctly keeled, moderately to densely finely scabrous, glabrous throughout or keels and sometimes marginal veins proximally sparsely softly puberulent; margins narrowly scarious; tips acute. |
Anthers | 0.2–0.8 mm. |
vestigial and 0.1–0.2 mm or functional and 1.5–2 mm. |
P lants | perennial; g ynodioecious, 7–30(35)cm tall, densely to loosely tufted, rhizomatous and stoloniferous; rhizomes and stolons to 100 cm long. |
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2n | =14. |
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Poa lettermanii |
Poa confinis |
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Distribution | ||
Discussion | Rocky alpine ridges and ledges. 2900–3100m. Casc. CA, ID, NV, WA; north to British Columbia, east to CO. Native. This is a small, cespitose, alpine bluegrass, most similar to P. suksdorfii. Both have subequal glumes that tend to be longer than the lowest lemma, but P. suksdorfii has larger spikelets with longer glumes. In Oregon, P. lettermanii is known only from high elevation on South Sister in the central Cascades. |
Coastal sand dunes and stabilized sandy soil, occasionally edges of coastal forests. 0–50m. Est. CA, WA; north to British Columbia. Native. 2n=42. Poa confinis is a rhizomatous grass that often puts up shoots in clusters. It grows in coastal sandy habitats. Poa macrantha grows in the same habitat but has much larger lemmas and inflorescences. Poa pratensis has long hairs on the lemma keels and marginal veins and cobwebby callus hairs that arise as a tuft on the dorsal surface, sometimes also with two additional tufts by the marginal veins. |
Source | Flora of Oregon, volume 1, page 459 Rob Soreng, Barbara Wilson, Richard Brainerd, Nick Otting |
Flora of Oregon, volume 1, page 455 Rob Soreng, Barbara Wilson, Richard Brainerd, Nick Otting |
Sibling taxa | ||
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