Poa saltuensis |
Poa curtifolia |
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old-pasture blue grass |
little mountain blue grass, wematchee bluegrass |
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Habit | Plants perennial; not rhizomatous, not stoloniferous, loosely tufted. | Plants perennial; densely tufted, not stoloniferous, not rhizomatous. | ||||
Culms | 20-95 cm tall, 0.8-1.5 mm thick. |
(15)20-40 cm, erect or decumbent, with 1-2 exserted nodes. |
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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 1/5-1/3 their length, terete, smooth, bases of basal sheaths glabrous, distal sheath lengths 4-33 times blade lengths, smooth, glabrous; ligules (1.5)2-5 mm, smooth or sparsely scabrous, margins distinctly decurrent, apices obtuse to acute, ligules of innovations prominent, milky white; innovation blades similar to the cauline blades; cauline blades gradually reduced in length upwards, (1)1.5-3 mm wide, flat, thick, fairly firm, smooth or sparsely scabrous, margins white, apices broadly prow-shaped, flag leaf blades 0.2-1.8 cm, infrequently absent. |
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Basal branching | mainly pseudointravaginal. |
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. |
4-8 cm, erect, linear to narrowly lanceoloid, contracted, moderately congested, with 9-35 spikelets; nodes with 1-2 branches; branches 1-2.5 cm, erect to steeply ascending, straight, sulcate or angled, angles sparsely to moderately scabrous, with 1-4 spikelets in the distal 1/2. |
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Spikelets | 3-5.6 mm, laterally compressed; florets 2-5; rachilla internodes glabrous, usually shorter than 1 mm. |
7-9 mm, lengths 3.5-4 times widths, lanceolate, fairly compressed, pale, slightly lustrous; florets (2)3-4; rachilla internodes 1-2 mm. |
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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. |
lanceolate to broadly lanceolate, margins broadly scarious, keels indistinct, smooth or sparsely scabrous; lower glumes 3-veined, slightly to distinctly shorter than the lowest lemma; calluses glabrous; lemmas 4.5-6 mm, lanceolate, somewhat weakly keeled, glabrous or the keels, marginal veins, and intercostal regions very sparsely puberulent over the proximal 1/3, lateral veins obscure, margins strongly inrolled proximally, broadly scarious distally, glabrous, apices acute; palea keels scabrous, glabrous or puberulent at midlength; anthers 2.2-3.5 mm. |
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2n | = 42. |
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Poa saltuensis |
Poa curtifolia |
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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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WA |
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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 curtifolia is endemic to upper serpentine slopes in the Wenatchee Mountains, Kittitas and Chelan counties, "Washington. It has narrow panicles like P. pringlei (p. 564) and P. suksdorfii (p. 584). It differs from P. secunda (p. 586), with which it is sometimes confused, in having all blades short, flat, and firm, and few spikelets per branch. (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, p. 589. | ||||
Parent taxa | Poaceae > subfam. Pooideae > tribe Poeae > Poa > subg. Poa > sect. Sylvestres | Poaceae > subfam. Pooideae > tribe Poeae > Poa > subg. Poa > sect. Secundae > subsect. Secundae | ||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||
Synonyms | P. saltuensis var. microlepis, P. languida | |||||
Name authority | Fernald & Wiegand | Scribn. | ||||
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