Poa saltuensis
Poa chapmaniana
old-pasture blue grass
Chapman's blue grass
20-95 cm tall, 0.8-1.5 mm thick.
5-30(40) cm tall, 0.3-0.7 mm thick, erect or the bases geniculate;
nodes terete, usually 1 exserted.
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 – 1/2 their length, terete or weakly compressed, smooth;
ligules 0.7-5 mm, decurrent, truncate to acute;
blades of innovations and culms similar, 2-5(8) cm long, 0.6-2.8 mm wide, flat or folded, thin, soft, smooth, margins scabrous, apices narrowly prow-shaped.
mainly pseudointravaginal.
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.
2-9.6 cm, erect, eventually open, moderately to densely congested, with 1-4(7) branches per node;
branches eventually ascending to spreading, rarely reflexed, terete, smooth or sparsely scabrous, spikelet-bearing to near the base or middle.
3-5.6 mm, laterally compressed;
florets 2-5;
rachilla internodes glabrous, usually shorter than 1 mm.
(2)2.4-4.5 mm, laterally compressed;
florets (1)2-6;
rachilla internodes usually shorter than 0.7 mm, smooth or scabrous, glabrous.
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, about 3/4 as long as to subequal to the adjacent lemmas, lanceolate, thin, distinctly keeled, keels scabrous;
lower glumes 1-3-veined;
calluses webbed;
lemmas 1.9-3 mm, broadly lanceolate, distinctly keeled, smooth, keels and marginal veins short- to long-villous, hairs on the keels extending to near the apices, lateral veins obscure, usually softly puberulent, intercostal regions usually sparsely softly puberulent, apices obtuse to acute;
palea keels softly puberulent to long-villous at midlength, scabrous near the apices;
anthers 1, 0.1-0.2(0.3) mm.
= unknown.
Poa saltuensis
Poa chapmaniana
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 chapmaniana is native from the central part of the Great Plains east and southward to the coast. It grows in dry to mesic forests, forest openings, and the margins of bottomlands, often in disturbed ground and on acidic substrates. Records from New York probably represent introductions. Its web and single short anther distinguish P. chapmaniana from P. annua (p. 520) and most plants of P. bigelovii. It also differs from P. bigelovii (see below), probably its closest relative, in having narrower leaf blades, and panicle branches that are eventually spreading.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
1. Anthers 0.4-1 mm long; lemma apices obtuse to acute, firm or scarious for up to 0.25 mm | subsp. languida |
1. Anthers 0.9-1.5 mm long; lemma apices acute to acuminate, scarious for 0.25-0.5 mm | subsp. saltuensis |
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