Poa saltuensis |
Poa abbreviata |
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old-pasture blue grass |
abbreviated bluegrass, dwarf blue grass, northern blue grass, short bluegrass |
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Habit | Plants perennial; not rhizomatous, not stoloniferous, loosely tufted. | Plants perennial; not or scarcely glaucous; densely tufted, not stoloniferous, not rhizomatous. | ||||||||||||
Culms | 20-95 cm tall, 0.8-1.5 mm thick. |
5-15(20) cm, slender, leafless above the basal tuft. |
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Sheaths | closed for 1/3-2/3 their length; ligules 0.2-3(4) mm, smooth or sparsely scabrous, truncate to obtuse; blades 1-3.6 (6) mm wide, flat, thin, lax, veins prominent. |
closed for 1/10 – 1/4 their length, terete; ligules 0.4-5.5 mm, milky white to hyaline, smooth or scabrous, apices truncate to acute; blades 0.8-1.5(2) mm wide, involute, moderately thick, soft, apices narrowly prow-shaped. |
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Basal branching | mainly pseudointravaginal. |
all or mainly intravaginal. |
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Panicles | 4-20(24) cm long, less than 1/4 the plant height, lax; nodes with 1-3 branches; branches ascending to spreading, lax, angled, angles prominent, scabrous. |
1.5-5 cm, erect, lanceoloid to ovoid, contracted, congested; nodes with 1-3 branches; branches to 1.5 cm, erect, slender, terete, sulcate or angled, smooth or the angles sparsely scabrous; pedicels usually shorter than the spikelets. |
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Spikelets | 3-5.6 mm, laterally compressed; florets 2-5; rachilla internodes glabrous, usually shorter than 1 mm. |
4-6.5 mm, laterally compressed, rarely bulbiferous, frequently strongly anthocyanic; florets 2-5, rarely bulb-forming; rachilla internodes usually shorter than 1 mm, smooth or scabrous. |
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Glumes | 2/3 – 3/4 as long as the adjacent lemmas, distinctly keeled; lower glumes 1(3)-veined; upper glumes shorter than or subequal to the lowest lemmas; calluses webbed; lemmas 2.4-4 mm, lanceolate to broadly lanceolate, distinctly keeled, usually glabrous, bases of marginal veins rarely sparsely softly puberulent, lateral veins prominent, intercostal regions smooth, minutely bumpy, apices obtuse to sharply acute or acuminate; palea keels scabrous; anthers 0.4-1.5 mm. |
subequal to slightly longer than the adjacent lemmas, lanceolate to broadly lanceolate, distinctly keeled, keels smooth; lower glumes (1)3-veined, lateral veins often faint and short; upper glumes exceeding or exceeded by the upper florets; calluses glabrous or webbed; lemmas 3-4.6 mm, lanceolate to broadly lanceolate, distinctly keeled, thin, keels and marginal veins usually short- to long-villous, hairs extending along 3/4 - 5/6 of the keel, infrequently glabrous, intercostal regions glabrous or softly puberulent to short-villous, apices acute; palea keels scabrous, often short-villous to softly puberulent at midlength, sometimes glabrous; anthers 0.2-1.2(1.8) mm. |
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2n | = 42. |
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Poa saltuensis |
Poa abbreviata |
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Distribution |
CT; IA; IL; IN; KY; MA; MD; ME; MI; MN; NC; NH; NJ; NY; OH; PA; RI; TN; VA; VT; WI; WV; LB; NB; NS; ON; PE; QC
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AK; CA; CO; ID; MT; NV; OR; UT; WY; AB; BC; NT; NU; YT; Greenland |
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Discussion | Poa saltuensis grows in woodlands of the north-central and northeastern United States and adjacent Canada, extending south to Tennessee. The two subspecies are sometimes treated as species. The variation between the two overlaps and is correlated to some extent with ecology and geography. Poa marcida (p. 512), a western species once included in P. saltuensis, differs in having closed sheaths and attenuate lemmas. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Poa abbreviata is an alpine and circumarctic species which has two subspecies in the western Cordilleras, and one in the high arctic. It grows mainly on frost scars and mesic rocky slopes, usually on open ground. In rare cases where the lemmas and calluses of P. abbreviata ate glabrous, it can be confused with P. lettermanii (p. 580), but that species has shorter spikelets and glumes that are longer than the adjacent florets. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 24, p. 510. | FNA vol. 24. | ||||||||||||
Parent taxa | Poaceae > subfam. Pooideae > tribe Poeae > Poa > subg. Poa > sect. Sylvestres | Poaceae > subfam. Pooideae > tribe Poeae > Poa > subg. Poa > sect. Abbreviatae | ||||||||||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||||||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||||||||||
Synonyms | P. saltuensis var. microlepis, P. languida | |||||||||||||
Name authority | Fernald & Wiegand | R. Br. | ||||||||||||
Web links |