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early bluegrass

Habit Plants perennial; loosely tufted or with solitary shoots, shortly rhizomatous. Plants annual or perennial; sometimes unisexual; with or without rhizomes or stolons, densely to loosely tufted or the culms solitary.
Culms

15-60 cm, erect or the bases decumbent, not branching above the base, terete or weakly compressed;

nodes terete, 0-1 exserted.

spindly to stout, terete or weakly to strongly compressed;

nodes 0-5, exserted.

Sheaths

closed for about 1/2 their length, slightly compressed, distinctly keeled, glabrous, bases of basal sheaths glabrous, distal sheath lengths 4-60 times blade lengths;

collars of proximal leaves usually retrorsely scabrous or pubescent distally and about the throat;

ligules 0.5-4 mm, smooth or scabrous, apices truncate to acute;

innovation blades similar to the cauline blades;

cauline blades 1-4 mm wide, usually flat, sometimes slightly folded, smooth or sparsely scabrous, primarily over the veins, apices broadly prow-shaped, blades steeply reduced in length distally, flag leaf blades 0.2-3(6) cm.

terete or weakly to strongly compressed, closed only at the base or up to full length, fusion of the margins not extended by a hyaline membrane, basal sheaths usually glabrous, rarely sparsely retrorsely strigose, hairs about 0.1 mm;

ligules 0.1-18 mm, thinly membranous and white to milky white or hyaline, truncate to acuminate, entire or erose to lacerate, smooth or ciliolate;

blades flat, folded, or involute, thin to thick, smooth or sparsely to densely scabrous, adaxial surfaces glabrous or hairy, hispidulous or puberulent, apices narrowly to broadly prow-shaped.

Basal branching

mainly extravaginal.

intra- and/or extravaginal or pseudointravaginal.

Panicles

5-15 cm, erect or lax, pyramidal, open, sparse, with 20-80 spikelets, proximal internodes usually 3+ cm;

nodes usually with 2 branches;

branches (2)3-7(10) cm, spreading to reflexed, straight, angled, angles scabrous, with 2-8(10) spikelets.

1-41 cm, erect to nodding or lax, tightly contracted to open, with 1-100+ spikelets;

branches 0.5-20 cm, erect to reflexed, terete or angled, smooth or sparsely to densely scabrous, usually glabrous, rarely hispidulous, with 1 to many spikelets.

Spikelets

5-8 mm, lengths to 3.5 times widths, laterally compressed, not sexually dimorphic;

florets 2-5;

rachilla internodes smooth.

2-12 mm, subterete to strongly laterally compressed, sometimes bulbiferous;

florets (1)2-8(13);

rachilla internodes smooth or scabrous, glabrous or pubescent.

Glumes

narrowly lanceolate to lanceolate, distinctly keeled;

lower glumes 1-3-veined;

calluses webbed, hairs over 1/3 the lemma length;

lemmas 3-6 mm, lanceolate, distinctly keeled, keels and marginal veins sparsely short- to long-villous, lateral veins moderately prominent, intercostal regions glabrous or the upper florets in the spikelets softly puberulent, margins glabrous, apices acute;

palea keels scabrous, softly puberulent at midlength;

anthers vestigial (0.1-0.2 mm) or 2-3.5 mm.

shorter than to slightly exceeding the adjacent lemmas, weakly to distinctly keeled, smooth or scabrous;

calluses blunt, usually terete or slightly laterally compressed, sometimes slightly dorsally compressed, glabrous, dorsally webbed, diffusely webbed, or with a crown of hairs;

lemmas 1.7-11 mm, rounded to weakly or distinctly keeled, thinly membranous to chartaceous, glabrous or hairy on the keel and veins, sometimes the intercostal regions also hairy, 5-7(11)-veined, margins smooth or scabrous, glabrous, apices obtuse to acuminate;

palea keels usually scabrous, infrequently smooth, glabrous or with hairs;

anthers (1-2)3, 0.1-4.5(5) mm.

2n

= 28.

Poa cuspidata

Poa subg. Poa

Distribution
from FNA
AL; DC; DE; GA; IN; KY; LA; MD; NC; NJ; NY; OH; PA; SC; TN; VA; WV
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Poa cuspidata is a common species of forest openings in the Appalachian Mountains. It is an eastern counterpart of P. arnowiae (see previous), P. tracyi (p. 543), and P. nervosa (see next). Like those species, it is sequentially gynomonoecious.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Poa subg. Poa is the largest subgenus of Poa. Its distribution is essentially the same as that of the genus. It includes all but one of the 70 species of Poa in the Flora region; P. etninens is included in subg. Arctopoa.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Source FNA vol. 24, p. 545. FNA vol. 24.
Parent taxa Poaceae > subfam. Pooideae > tribe Poeae > Poa > subg. Poa > sect. Madropoa > subsect. Poa Poaceae > subfam. Pooideae > tribe Poeae > Poa
Sibling taxa
P. abbreviata, P. alpina, P. alsodes, P. ammophila, P. annua, P. arachnifera, P. arctica, P. arida, P. arnowiae, P. atropurpurea, P. autumnalis, P. bigelovii, P. bolanderi, P. bulbosa, P. chaixii, P. chambersii, P. chapmaniana, P. compressa, P. confinis, P. curtifolia, P. cusickii, P. diaboli, P. douglasii, P. eminens, P. fendleriana, P. glauca, P. hartzii, P. howellii, P. infirma, P. interior, P. keckii, P. kelloggii, P. laxa, P. laxa × glauca, P. laxiflora, P. leibergii, P. leptocoma, P. lettermanii, P. macrantha, P. macrocalyx, P. marcida, P. napensis, P. nemoralis, P. nervosa, P. occidentalis, P. paludigena, P. palustris, P. paucispicula, P. piperi, P. porsildii, P. pratensis, P. pringlei, P. pseudoabbreviata, P. reflexa, P. rhizomata, P. saltuensis, P. secunda, P. sierrae, P. stebbinsii, P. stenantha, P. strictiramea, P. sublanata, P. suksdorfii, P. supina, P. sylvestris, P. tenerrima, P. tracyi, P. trivialis, P. unilateralis, P. wheeleri, P. wolfii, P. ×gaspensis, P. ×limosa, P. ×nematophylla
Subordinate taxa
Name authority Nutt. unknown
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