Polypogon viridis
Polypogon maritimus
beardless rabbit's-foot grass, water beard grass, water bentgrass
Mediterranean beard grass, Mediterranean rabbitsfoot grass
10-90 cm, sometimes decumbent and rooting at the lower nodes.
(5)20-40 (50) cm, geniculate.
glabrous, smooth;
ligules to 5 mm;
blades 2-13 cm long, 1-6 mm wide.
glabrous, smooth, uppermost sheaths sometimes inflated;
ligules to 7 mm;
blades (1)3-9 (14) cm long, 0.5-5 mm wide.
2-10 cm, ovate-oblong to pyramidal, dense but interrupted, pale green to purplish;
pedicels not developed;
stipes 0.1-0.6 mm.
(1)2-8(15) cm, narrowly ellipsoid, dense, sometimes lobed, often purplish;
pedicels to about 0.5 mm, capillary;
stipes 0.1-1.2 mm.
1.5-2 mm, scabrous on the back and keel, apices obtuse or truncate, unawned;
lemmas about 1 mm, erose, unawned;
paleas subequal to the lemmas;
anthers 0.3-0.5 mm.
1.8-3.2 mm, hispidulous basally, hairs sometimes strongly inflated and obtuse, apices lobed, lobes 0.3-1.2 mm, more than 1/6 the length of the glume body, awned from the sinus, awns (4)7-12 mm;
lemmas 0.5-1.5 mm, unawned or awned, awns shorter than 1 mm;
paleas subequal to the lemmas;
anthers 0.4-0.5 mm.
= 28, 42.
= 14.
Polypogon viridis
Polypogon maritimus
Polypogon viridis grows in mesic habitats associated with rivers, streams, and irrigation ditches. It is native from southern Europe to Pakistan, but is now established in the Flora region, particularly the southwestern United States. Records from the Atlantic coast are based on plants found on ballast dumps; there have been no recent collections from these locations.
In Europe, Polypogon viridis hybridizes with P. monspeliensis, forming P. xadscendens Guss. ex Bertol.; no such hybrids have been reported from the Flora region.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Polypogon maritimus grows in disturbed, moist places, from sea level to 700 m. It is a Mediterranean species that now occurs at scattered locations in North America, being particularly common in, or possibly just well-reported from, California. There are two varieties. Plants from the Flora region belong to P. maritimus Willd. var. maritimus, having stipes about as long as they are wide, glumes that never become strongly indurate at the base, and uninflated, acute hairs on the glume bases. Plants of P. maritimus var. subspathaceus (Req.) Bonnier 8c Layens have stipes that are 3-4 times as long as wide, glumes that become strongly indurate at maturity, and hairs on the glume bases that are strongly inflated and subobtuse.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
- Local floras:
BC, 
CA, 
OR, 
WA - Local Web sites: CalFlora, CalPhotos,
Flora NW, 
Go Botany, 
PNW Herbaria 
WildflowerSearch
iNaturalist (observations)
USDA Plants Database- LBJ Wildflower Center
- SEINet
- Plants of the World Online
- Encyclopedia of Life
- Wikipedia
- Google Image Search
- Local floras: CA, OR, WA
- Local Web sites: CalFlora, CalPhotos, Flora NW, PNW Herbaria
- WildflowerSearch
- iNaturalist (observations)
- USDA Plants Database
- LBJ Wildflower Center
- SEINet
- Plants of the World Online
- Encyclopedia of Life
- Wikipedia
- Google Image Search
