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annual blue grass

Habit Glabrous annual, the culms 5-20 cm. tall, hollow, rooting at the nodes and forming mats.
Leaves

Sheaths closed below, but open over half their length;

ligules about 1 mm. long, rounded to truncate;

blades 1-3.5 mm. broad, usually folded, the tip prow-like.

Flowers

Inflorescence a pyramidal panicle 3-8 cm. long, the branches spreading and somewhat rigid;

spikelets 3- to 6-flowered, 4-6 mm. long;

glumes unequal, the first 1-nerved, about 2 mm. long, the second 3-nerved, much the broader;

florets rather distant, the rachilla visible;

lemmas about 3.5 mm. long, 5-nerved, the margins purplish and papery, usually pubescent along the keel and marginal nerves;

paleas slightly shorter than the lemmas, 2-keeled.

Poa annua

Flowering time March-August
Habitat Lawns, fields, parking lots, sidewalks, roadsides, wastelots, prairies and grassy balds, and other disturbed, open areas.
Distribution
Occurring on both sides of the Cascades crest in Washington; Alaska to California, east across North America to the Atlantic Coast.
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Origin Introduced from Eurasia
Conservation status Not of concern
Sibling taxa
P. alpina, P. arctica, P. bolanderi, P. bulbosa, P. compressa, P. confinis, P. curtifolia, P. cusickii, P. fendleriana, P. glauca, P. howellii, P. infirma, P. interior, P. laxiflora, P. leibergii, P. leptocoma, P. lettermanii, P. macrantha, P. marcida, P. ×multnomae, P. nemoralis, P. nervosa, P. palustris, P. paucispicula, P. pratensis, P. secunda, P. stenantha, P. suksdorfii, P. trivialis, P. unilateralis, P. wheeleri
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