Poa cusickii |
Poa curtifolia |
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Cusick's bluegrass |
little mountain blue grass, wematchee bluegrass |
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Habit | Plants perennial; usually densely tufted, rarely moderately densely tufted, usually neither rhizomatous nor stoloniferous, infrequently short-rhizomatous or stoloniferous, rarely with distinct rhizomes. | Plants perennial; densely tufted, not stoloniferous, not rhizomatous. | ||||||||||||
Culms | 10-60(70) cm tall, 0.5-1.8 mm thick, erect or the bases decumbent, terete or weakly compressed; nodes terete, 0-2 exserted. |
(15)20-40 cm, erect or decumbent, with 1-2 exserted nodes. |
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Sheaths | closed for 1/4-3/4 their length, terete, smooth or scabrous, glabrous, bases of basal sheaths glabrous, distal sheath lengths 1.6-10 times blade lengths; collars smooth or scabrous, glabrous; ligules of cauline leaves 1-3(6) mm, smooth or scabrous, truncate to acute, ligules of the innovation leaves 0.2-0.5(2.5) mm, scabrous, usually truncate; innovation blades sometimes distinctly different from the cauline blades, 0.5-2 mm wide, involute, moderately thick, moderately firm, adaxial surfaces usually densely scabrous or hispidulous to softly puberulent, infrequently nearly smooth and glabrous; cauline blades subequal or the midcauline blades longest or the blades gradually reduced in length distally, 0.5-3 mm wide, flat, folded, or involute, usually thin, usually withering, abaxial surfaces smooth or scabrous, apices narrowly to broadly prow-shaped, flag leaf blades 0.5-5(6) cm. |
closed for 1/5-1/3 their length, terete, smooth, bases of basal sheaths glabrous, distal sheath lengths 4-33 times blade lengths, smooth, glabrous; ligules (1.5)2-5 mm, smooth or sparsely scabrous, margins distinctly decurrent, apices obtuse to acute, ligules of innovations prominent, milky white; innovation blades similar to the cauline blades; cauline blades gradually reduced in length upwards, (1)1.5-3 mm wide, flat, thick, fairly firm, smooth or sparsely scabrous, margins white, apices broadly prow-shaped, flag leaf blades 0.2-1.8 cm, infrequently absent. |
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Basal branching | intravaginal or intra- and extravaginal. |
mainly intravaginal. |
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Panicles | 2-10(12) cm, usually erect, contracted or loosely contracted, narrowly lanceoloid to ovoid, congested or moderately congested, with 10-100 spikelets and 1-3(5) branches per node; branches 0.5-4(5) cm, erect or steeply ascending, fairly straight, slender to stout, terete to angled, smooth or scabrous, with 1-15 spikelets. |
4-8 cm, erect, linear to narrowly lanceoloid, contracted, moderately congested, with 9-35 spikelets; nodes with 1-2 branches; branches 1-2.5 cm, erect to steeply ascending, straight, sulcate or angled, angles sparsely to moderately scabrous, with 1-4 spikelets in the distal 1/2. |
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Spikelets | (3)4-10 mm, lengths to 3 times widths, broadly lanceolate to narrowly ovate, laterally compressed, not sexually dimorphic; florets 2-6; rachilla internodes 0.5-1.2 mm, smooth or scabrous. |
7-9 mm, lengths 3.5-4 times widths, lanceolate, fairly compressed, pale, slightly lustrous; florets (2)3-4; rachilla internodes 1-2 mm. |
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Glumes | lanceolate, distinctly keeled; lower glumes 3-veined, distinctly shorter than the lowest lemmas; calluses glabrous or diffusely webbed, hairs less than 1/4 the lemma length; lemmas (3)4-7 mm, lanceolate to broadly lanceolate, distinctly keeled, membranous to thinly membranous, smooth or sparsely to densely scabrous, glabrous or the keels and/or marginal veins puberulent proximally, lateral veins obscure to prominent, margins glabrous, apices acute; palea keels scabrous, intercostal regions glabrous; anthers vestigial (0.1-0.2 mm), aborted late in development, or 2-3.5 mm. |
lanceolate to broadly lanceolate, margins broadly scarious, keels indistinct, smooth or sparsely scabrous; lower glumes 3-veined, slightly to distinctly shorter than the lowest lemma; calluses glabrous; lemmas 4.5-6 mm, lanceolate, somewhat weakly keeled, glabrous or the keels, marginal veins, and intercostal regions very sparsely puberulent over the proximal 1/3, lateral veins obscure, margins strongly inrolled proximally, broadly scarious distally, glabrous, apices acute; palea keels scabrous, glabrous or puberulent at midlength; anthers 2.2-3.5 mm. |
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2n | = 28, 28+11, 56, 56+11, 59, ca. 70. |
= 42. |
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Poa cusickii |
Poa curtifolia |
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Distribution |
CA; CO; ID; MT; ND; NV; OR; UT; WA; WY; AB; BC; MB; SK; YT
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WA |
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Discussion | Poa cusickii grows in rich meadows in sagebrush scrub to rocky alpine slopes, from the southwestern Yukon Territory to Manitoba and North Dakota, south to central California and eastern Colorado. It is gynodioecious or dioecious. Sexually reproducing plants of Poa cusickii subspp. cusickii and pallida grow in different geographic areas, but pistillate plants of these two subspecies have overlapping ranges. Only pistillate plants are known in Poa cusickii subspp. epilis and purpurascens. All the alpine plants studied were pistillate. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Poa curtifolia is endemic to upper serpentine slopes in the Wenatchee Mountains, Kittitas and Chelan counties, "Washington. It has narrow panicles like P. pringlei (p. 564) and P. suksdorfii (p. 584). It differs from P. secunda (p. 586), with which it is sometimes confused, in having all blades short, flat, and firm, and few spikelets per branch. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 24, p. 559. | FNA vol. 24, p. 589. | ||||||||||||
Parent taxa | Poaceae > subfam. Pooideae > tribe Poeae > Poa > subg. Poa > sect. Madropoa > subsect. Epiles | Poaceae > subfam. Pooideae > tribe Poeae > Poa > subg. Poa > sect. Secundae > subsect. Secundae | ||||||||||||
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Name authority | Vasey | Scribn. | ||||||||||||
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