Poa reflexa |
Poa fendleriana |
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nodding bluegrass |
Fendler's bluegrass, long-tongue mutton grass, mutton grass, Vasey's mutton grass |
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Habit | Plants perennial, short-lived; densely tufted, tuft bases narrow or not, not stoloniferous, not rhizomatous. | Plants perennial; densely to loosely tufted, rhizomatous, often weakly so, rhizomes usually short and inconspicuous. | ||||||||
Culms | 10-60 cm. |
15-70 cm, sometimes stout, erect or the bases decumbent, terete or weakly compressed; nodes terete, 0-1 exserted. |
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Sheaths | closed for 1/3 – 2/3 their length, terete, smooth; ligules 1.5-3.5 mm, smooth or sparsely scabrous; blades 1.5-4 mm wide, flat, thin, soft, apices broadly prow-shaped. |
closed for about 1/3 their length, terete, smooth or scabrous, glabrous or occasionally retrorsely pubescent, bases of basal sheaths glabrous, distal sheath lengths usually (5)9+ times blade lengths; collars smooth or scabrous, glabrous or hispidulous; ligules 0.2-18 mm, smooth or scabrous, decurrent or not, apices truncate to acuminate, ciliolate or glabrous; innovation blades usually moderately to densely scabrous or hispidulous on and between the veins, infrequently nearly smooth and glabrous; cauline blades strongly reduced in length distally, (0.5)1-3(4) mm wide, usually involute, moderately thick and firm, infrequently moderately thin, abaxial surfaces usually smooth, infrequently scabrous, apices narrowly prow-shaped, steeply reduced in length distally along the culm, flag leaf blades often absent or very reduced, sometimes to 1(3) cm. |
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Basal branching | mixed intra- and extravaginal. |
mainly intravaginal, usually some extravaginal. |
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Panicles | 4-15 cm, nodding, open, with numerous spikelets and 1-2 branches per node; branches (2)3-7 cm, spreading to reflexed, lower branches usually reflexed, flexuous, usually terete, smooth or sparsely scabrous, with (3)6-18 spikelets. |
2-12(30) cm, erect, contracted, narrowly lanceoloid to ovoid, congested, frequently with 100+ spikelets; nodes with 1-2 branches; branches 1-8 cm, erect, terete to weakly angled, smooth or scabrous, with 3-15(25) spikelets. |
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Spikelets | 4-6 mm, lanceolate to broadly lanceolate, usually partly to wholly purplish, with 3-5 florets; rachilla internodes shorter than 1 mm, smooth. |
(3)4-8(12) mm, lengths to 3 times widths, broadly lanceolate to ovate, laterally compressed, not sexually dimorphic; florets 2-7(13); rachilla internodes 0.8-1.3 mm, smooth, glabrous or hairy, hairs to 0.3 mm. |
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Glumes | narrowly to broadly lanceolate, distinctly keeled, keels smooth or nearly so; lower glumes 1-veined; upper glumes shorter than or subequal to the lowest lemmas; calluses webbed; lemmas 2-3.5 mm, lanceolate, partly purple to fairly strongly purple, distinctly keeled, keels and marginal veins short- to long-villous, keels hairy for 2h-ls their length, lateral veins usually sparsely softly puberulent at least on 1 side, lateral veins obscure to moderately prominent, intercostal regions smooth, minutely bumpy, glabrous, apices acute, slightly bronze-colored or not; palea keels scabrous, usually softly puberulent at midlength; anthers 0.6-1 mm. |
lanceolate, distinctly keeled; lower glumes 1-3-veined, distinctly shorter than the lowest lemmas; calluses glabrous; lemmas 3-6 mm, lanceolate, distinctly keeled, keels, marginal veins, and lateral veins glabrous or short- to long-villous or softly puberulent, lateral veins moderately prominent, intercostal regions softly puberulent or glabrous, smooth or sparsely scabrous, margins glabrous, apices acute; palea keels scabrous, sometimes softly puberulent or long-villous at midlength, hairs to 0.4+ mm; anthers vestigial (0.1-0.2 mm) or 2-3 mm. |
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2n | = 28. |
= 28+11, 56, 56-58, 58-64. |
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Poa reflexa |
Poa fendleriana |
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Distribution |
AZ; CO; ID; MT; NM; NV; OR; UT; WY
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AZ; CA; CO; ID; MT; ND; NE; NM; NV; OK; OR; SD; TX; UT; WA; WY; AB; BC; MB
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Discussion | Poa reflexa grows in subalpine forests, meadows, and low alpine habitats, primarily in the central and southern Rocky Mountains. It usually grows on drier and more disturbed sites, and appears shorter-lived, than the frequently sympatric or parapatric P. leptocoma (p. 573), from which it differs in usually having hairs on the palea keels and lateral veins of the lemmas, and smooth panicle branches. In addition, P. reflexa is tetraploid, whereas P. leptocoma is hexaploid. Poa reflexa may resemble small plants of P. occidentalis (see previous) in habit. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Poa fendleriana grows on rocky to rich slopes in sagebrush-scrub, interior chaparral, and southern (rarely northern) high plains grasslands to forests, and from desert hills to low alpine habitats. Its range extends from British Columbia to Manitoba and south to Mexico. It is one of the best spring fodder grasses in the eastern Great Basin, Colorado plateaus, and southern Rocky Mountains. It is dioecious. Each of the subspecies has regions of sexual reproduction in which staminate plants are common within populations, and extensive regions where only apomictic, pistillate plants are found. The sexual populations set little seed; the apomictic populations are highly fecund. Poa fendleriana hybridizes with Poa cusickii subsp. pallida (p. 560). The hybrids are called P. xnematophylla (p. 562). (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 24, p. 538. | FNA vol. 24, p. 556. | ||||||||
Parent taxa | Poaceae > subfam. Pooideae > tribe Poeae > Poa > subg. Poa > sect. Homalopoa | Poaceae > subfam. Pooideae > tribe Poeae > Poa > subg. Poa > sect. Madropoa > subsect. Madropoa | ||||||||
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Name authority | Vasey & Scribn. | (Steud.) Vasey | ||||||||
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