Poa stenantha |
Poa saltuensis |
|||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
narrow-flower bluegrass, northern bluegrass |
old-pasture blue grass |
|||||||||
Habit | Plants perennial; glaucous or not; densely to loosely tufted, not stoloniferous, not rhizomatous. | Plants perennial; not rhizomatous, not stoloniferous, loosely tufted. | ||||||||
Culms | 20-60(100) cm, bases decumbent or sometimes erect, terete, with 1-2 exserted nodes. |
20-95 cm tall, 0.8-1.5 mm thick. |
||||||||
Sheaths | closed for 1/10 – 1/5(1/4) their length, terete, bases of basal sheaths glabrous; ligules 2-5 mm, milky white, smooth or sparsely scabrous, acute to acuminate; innovation blades similar in texture and shape to the cauline blades; cauline blades not greatly reduced upwards, 1.5-4(5) mm wide, flat or folded, thin, lax, smooth or sparsely scabrous, apices narrowly prow-shaped. |
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. |
||||||||
Basal branching | mostly extravaginal, some intravaginal. |
mainly pseudointravaginal. |
||||||||
Panicles | 5-18(25) cm, lax, loosely contracted to open, sparse, with 20-65 spikelets and usually 2(7) branches per node; branches 3-15 cm, ascending to spreading, angled, angles finely to coarsely, sparsely to fairly densely scabrous, infrequently smooth, with 3-10(15) spikelets in the distal 1/2. |
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. |
||||||||
Spikelets | 6-10 mm, lengths 3-3.6 times widths, lanceolate to narrowly ovate, laterally compressed, sometimes bulbiferous, drab, often slightly glaucous; florets 3-4(7), normal or bulb-forming; rachilla internodes 1.2-2 mm, slightly dorsally compressed, smooth or sparsely muriculate. |
3-5.6 mm, laterally compressed; florets 2-5; rachilla internodes glabrous, usually shorter than 1 mm. |
||||||||
Glumes | subequal, lanceolate to broadly lanceolate, dull, frequently glaucous, obtuse to acute; lower glumes 3-veined; upper glumes (3.7)4.1-6.5 mm; calluses usually crowned with 0.2-2 mm hairs, sometimes glabrous; lemmas 4-6 mm, lanceolate, distinctly compressed, distinctly keeled, keels, marginal veins, and sometimes the lateral veins short- to long-villous, hairs extending for 3/4 of the keel, intercostal regions glabrous, sparsely puberulent or hispidulous proximally, usually sparsely to moderately densely scabrous distally, hairs distinctly shorter than those of the keel and veins, margins weakly inrolled, broadly scarious, glabrous, apices acute; palea keels scabrous, often softly puberulent at midlength, intercostal regions glabrous or puberulent; anthers 1.2-2 mm, sometimes aborted late in development or undeveloped. |
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. |
||||||||
2n | = 42, [81, 84, 86?]. |
|||||||||
Poa stenantha |
Poa saltuensis |
|||||||||
Distribution |
AK; CO; ID; MT; OR; UT; WA; AB; BC
|
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
|
||||||||
Discussion | Poa stenantha grows in coastal meadows and on cliffs in subarctic and boreal forests; it is less common in moist, more southern subalpine and low alpine meadows and thickets. Its range extends from western Alaska to the northern Cascades and Rocky Mountains and, as a disjunct, to Patagonia. Poa stenantha was originally described as growing in Kamchatka, Russia, but the Russian plants have since been referred to other species. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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.) |
||||||||
Key |
|
|
||||||||
Source | FNA vol. 24, p. 592. | FNA vol. 24, p. 510. | ||||||||
Parent taxa | Poaceae > subfam. Pooideae > tribe Poeae > Poa > subg. Poa > sect. Secundae > subsect. Halophytae | Poaceae > subfam. Pooideae > tribe Poeae > Poa > subg. Poa > sect. Sylvestres | ||||||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||||||
Synonyms | P. macroclada | P. saltuensis var. microlepis, P. languida | ||||||||
Name authority | Trin. | Fernald & Wiegand | ||||||||
Web links |
|