Poa lettermanii |
Poa macrantha |
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Letterman's bluegrass |
seashore bluegrass |
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Habit | Plants perennial, 1–12 cm tall; densely cespitose. | Plants perennial, dioecious, (7)15–60 cm tall; loosely cespitose, rhizomatous, and stoloniferous, rhizomes and stolons to 400 cm long. |
Culms | stout, 1.5–2 mm thick; 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 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 | erect, contracted, 1–3 cm long, usually exserted from the sheaths; branches erect to steeply ascending; slender; to 1.5 cm. |
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 | 3–4 mm, green or purple; florets 2–3; rachilla internodes less than 1 mm long; smooth. |
9–17 mm; to 3 times as long as wide; florets 3–6(10). |
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. |
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, 2.5–3 mm long, distinctly keeled; thin, glabrous; keels and marginal veins rarely sparsely puberulent; tips 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 | 0.2–0.8 mm. |
vestigial and 0.1–0.2 mm, or (2)3–4(5)mm. |
2n | =14. |
=28. |
Poa lettermanii |
Poa macrantha |
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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. 0–100m. Est. CA, WA; north to AK. Native. |
Source | Flora of Oregon, volume 1, page 459 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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