Poa cusickii |
Poa nervosa |
|||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Cusick's bluegrass |
Hooker's blue grass, veiny bluegrass, Wheeler bluegrass |
|||||||||||||
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; loosely tufted or with solitary shoots, short-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. |
20-65 cm, erect or the bases decumbent, terete or weakly compressed; nodes terete, 1-2 exserted. |
||||||||||||
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 2/3 – 9/10 their length, terete to slightly compressed, smooth or sparsely scabrous, sometimes hairy, hairs about 0.15 mm, bases of basal sheaths glabrous, distal sheath lengths (0.7)1-2.2(2.8) times blade lengths; collars of proximal leaves usually hairy on and near the margins, marginal hairs longer than those of the sheaths; ligules 0.5-1.5 mm, smooth or scabrous, hairy, hairs about 0.15 mm, truncate to obtuse, those of the lower culm and innovation leaves 0.5-1 mm, scabrous or softly puberulent, truncate; innovation blades similar to or longer than the cauline blades; cauline blades 2-4.5 mm wide, usually flat, lax, adaxial surfaces smooth or sparsely scabrous, particularly over the veins, apices broadly prow-shaped, blades gradually reduced in length distally or the middle blades longest, flag leaf blades 3-8 cm long. |
||||||||||||
Basal branching | intravaginal or intra- and extravaginal. |
mainly extravaginal. |
||||||||||||
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. |
8-15 cm, erect or lax, ovoid to pyramidal, open or loosely contracted, sparse, with 25-80 spikelets, proximal internodes 1.8-3.5 cm; nodes with 3-5 branches; branches 2.5-8 cm, ascending to spreading, lax, terete to weakly angled, moderately scabrous, with 2-8 spikelets. |
||||||||||||
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. |
4-7 mm, lengths to 3.5 times widths, laterally compressed, not sexually dimorphic; florets 3-8; rachilla internodes smooth or scabrous, glabrous or sparsely hispidulous. |
||||||||||||
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. |
2/3 – 4/5 as long as the adjacent lemmas, lanceolate, distinctly keeled; lower glumes 1-3(5)-veined; calluses usually glabrous, rarely minutely webbed; lemmas 3-4.5 mm, lanceolate, distinctly keeled, keels and marginal veins usually glabrous, infrequently sparsely softly puberulent to short-villous, intercostal regions glabrous or hispidulous, smooth or finely scabrous, margins glabrous, apices acute; paleas scabrous over the keels, intercostal regions glabrous; anthers usually 2.5-4 mm, sometimes vestigial (0.1-0.2 mm). |
||||||||||||
2n | = 28, 28+11, 56, 56+11, 59, ca. 70. |
= 28, 28+1. |
||||||||||||
Poa cusickii |
Poa nervosa |
|||||||||||||
Distribution |
CA; CO; ID; MT; ND; NV; OR; UT; WA; WY; AB; BC; MB; SK; YT
|
OR; WA; AB; BC
|
||||||||||||
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 nervosa occurs infrequently at low elevations in the western foothills of the northern Cascade Mountains and adjacent coast ranges, extending eastward up the Columbia Gorge as far as Multnomah Falls. It usually grows in wet habitats, such as mossy cliffs with seeps and around waterfalls, but it is also found in rich, old growth, mixed deciduous and conifer forests. It appears to be sexually reproducing and sequentially gynomonoecious. Poa nervosa differs from P. wheeleri (see next) in having densely pubescent leaf collar margins, and glabrous or more sparsely and shortly pubescent sheaths. It also differs in usually having well-developed anthers, and in being tetraploid. The two species are geographically isolated and ecologically distinct. Plants from the Columbia River Gorge in Oregon, including P. xmultnomae Piper, that approach P. tenerrima (p. 588) are presumed to be derived from hybridization between P. nervosa (see previous) and P. secunda (p. 586). (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
||||||||||||
Key |
|
|||||||||||||
Source | FNA vol. 24, p. 559. | FNA vol. 24, p. 545. | ||||||||||||
Parent taxa | Poaceae > subfam. Pooideae > tribe Poeae > Poa > subg. Poa > sect. Madropoa > subsect. Epiles | Poaceae > subfam. Pooideae > tribe Poeae > Poa > subg. Poa > sect. Madropoa > subsect. Poa | ||||||||||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||||||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||||||||||
Name authority | Vasey | (Hook.) Vasey | ||||||||||||
Web links |
|
|