Poa arida |
Poaceae subfam. pooideae |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
plains bluegrass, prairie speargrass |
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Habit | Plants perennial; glaucous or not; densely to loosely tufted or the culms solitary, rhizomatous. | Plants annual or perennial; sometimes matlike, sometimes cespitose, sometimes stoloniferous, sometimes rhizomatous. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Culms | 15-80 cm, erect or the bases decumbent, terete or weakly compressed; nodes terete, 0-1 exserted. |
usually hollow, sometimes solid. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sheaths | closed for 1/10 – 1/5(1/4) their length, terete, smooth or sparsely scabrous, glabrous, bases of basal sheaths glabrous, distal sheath lengths (1.2)1.5-9(20) times blade lengths; ligules (1)1.5-4(5) mm, smooth or sparsely to moderately scabrous, apices obtuse to acute; blades strongly to gradually reduced in length distally, 1.5-5 mm wide, flat and moderately thin to folded and moderately thick and firm, abaxial surfaces smooth, adaxial surfaces smooth or sparsely to moderately scabrous, primarily over the veins, apices narrowly prow-shaped, flag leaf blades (0.4)1-7(10) cm. |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Basal branching | intra- and extravaginal. |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Leaves | distichous; sheaths usually open to the base, varying to closed for nearly their full length; auricles present or absent; abaxial ligules absent; adaxial ligules scarious or membranous, sometimes puberulent or scabridulous, usually not ciliate, cilia sometimes shorter than the base; pseudopetioles rarely present; blades usually linear, sometimes broadly so, venation parallel; cross sections non-Kranz, mesophyll nonradiate, adaxial palisade layer absent, fusoid and arm cells usually absent; midribs usually simple; adaxial bulliform cells present; stomates with parallel-sided subsidiary cells; epidermes usually lacking bicellular microhairs, sometimes with unicellular microhairs, papillae usually absent, when present, rarely more than 1 per cell. |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Panicles | (2.5)4-12(18) cm, erect, usually narrowly lanceoloid, contracted, sometimes interrupted, infrequently loosely contracted, usually congested, with 25-100 spikelets; nodes with 1-5 branches; branches 1-9 cm, erect to infrequently ascending, rarely spreading, terete to weakly angled, smooth or the angles sparsely to moderately scabrous, with 3-24 spikelets. |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Inflorescences | usually terminal, panicles, spikes, or racemes, usually ebracteate; disarticulation usually below the florets, sometimes below the glumes, at the rachis nodes, or at the inflorescence bases. |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Spikelets | 3.2-7 mm, lengths to 3.5(3.8) times widths, laterally compressed; florets 2-7; rachilla internodes smooth, sometimes sparsely puberulent. |
usually bisexual, infrequently unisexual or mixed, usually laterally compressed or not compressed, occasionally dorsally compressed, with 1-30 sexual florets, distal floret(s) often reduced, infrequently spikelets with 1-2 reduced or staminate basal florets and a single terminal sexual floret. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Glumes | lanceolate, distinctly keeled, smooth or sparsely scabrous; lower glumes 3-veined; calluses usually glabrous, infrequently webbed, hairs to 1/4 the lemma length; lemmas 2.5-4.5 mm, lanceolate to narrowly lanceolate, distinctly to weakly keeled, keels and marginal veins short- to long-villous, lateral veins moderately prominent, glabrous or puberulent, intercostal regions usually glabrous, infrequently hairy, hairs to 0.3 mm, margins glabrous, apices acute or blunt; palea keels scabrous, glabrous or short-villous at midlength, intercostal regions usually glabrous, sometimes puberulent to short-villous; anthers 1.3-2.2 mm. |
usually 2, upper or lower glumes sometimes absent, rarely both glumes absent; lemmas without uncinate hairs, awned or not, awns single, basal to apical; paleas usually well-developed, sometimes reduced or absent; lodicules 2(3), usually lanceolate and broadly membranous distally, rarely truncate and fleshy, usually not veined or obscurely veined, sometimes distinctly veined, sometimes ciliate; anthers (1, 2)3; ovaries glabrous or sometimes hairy distally, sometimes with an apical appendage; haustorial synergids absent; styles (1)2 (-4), bases close together, sometimes fused. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Caryopses | hila linear, elliptic, ovate, or punctate; endosperm usually hard, sometimes soft or liquid, with or without lipids, starch grains compound or simple; embryos less than 1/2 the length of the caryopses; epiblasts usually present; scutellar cleft usually absent; mesocotyl internode usually absent; embryonic leaf margins overlapping, x = 7, 10. |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
2n | = 56, 56+1, 56-58, 63, 64, 70, 76, 84, ca. 90, 95+-5, 100, 103. |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Poa arida |
Poaceae subfam. pooideae |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Distribution |
CO; IA; IL; IN; KS; MI; MN; MT; ND; NE; NJ; NM; OH; OK; SD; TX; WY; AB; MB; ON; QC; SK
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Discussion | Poa arida grows mainly on the eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains and in the northern Great Plains, primarily in riparian habitats of varying salinity or alkalinity. It is spreading eastward along heavily salted highway corridors. Reports of its occurrence west of the Continental Divide and in southwestern Texas are mostly attributable to misidentifications of P. arctica subsp. aperta (p. 530). P. arctica subsp. grayana (p. 532), and rhizomatous specimens of P. fendleriana (p. 556). Poa arida may reflect past hybridization between P. secunda (p. 586) and a species of Poa sect. Poa. Poa glaucifolia Scribn. & T.A. Williams refers to specimens of the northern Great Plains that have a more lax growth form with broader leaves and occasionally somewhat open panicles, florets with a small web, and sometimes lacking hairs between the keel and marginal veins of the lemma. Plants with these characteristics have chromosome counts of 2ra = 56 and 70, whereas P. arida sensu stricto usually has 2n = 63, 64, or greater than 70. It is suspected that some of the variability reflects introgression from P. secunda. Poa arida is a named intersectional hybrid (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
The subfamily Pooideae includes approximately 3300 species, making it the largest subfamily in the Poaceae. It reaches its greatest diversity in cool temperate and boreal regions, extending across the tropics only in high mountains. The circumscription and relationships of tribes within the Pooideae are unsettled (see, for example, Catalan et al. 1997, 2004; Soreng and Davis 1998). In this flora, some previously recognized tribes have been combined with the Poeae. Recognition of some of these as subtribes is well supported; among these is the Hainardieae Greuter (which, at the subtribal level, is called the Parapholiinae Caro). Members of other traditional tribal groupings, such as the Aveneae Dumort., appear to be widely dispersed within the Poeae sensu lato. Further work will probably support the division of the expanded Poeae into additional tribes; there is as yet no clear indication as to what the boundaries of such tribes should be. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Key |
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Source | FNA vol. 24, p. 599. | FNA vol. 24, p. 57. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Parent taxa | Poaceae > subfam. Pooideae > tribe Poeae > Poa | Poaceae | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Synonyms | P. glaucifolia | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Name authority | Vasey | Benth. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Web links |