Northeast Wetland Flora
Field Office Guide to Plant Species
Poa nemoralis L.
- Family: Grass (Gramineae)
- Flowering: June-September
- Field Marks: The distinguishing features of this bluegrass are the lemmas with cobwebby hairs at the base and with hairs only on the marginal nerves, the smooth leaf sheaths, and the absence of rhizomes.
- Habitat: Woods, shores.
- Habit: Tufted perennial herb with a thickened rootstock but without rhizomes.
- Stems: Upright, slender, often unbranched, smooth, up to 3 feet tall.
- Leaves: Elongated, flat, up to 1/6 inch wide, smooth; sheaths smooth.
- Flowers: Borne in spikelets, the spikelets arranged in open, lax panicles up to 8 inches long; spikelets 2- to 5-flowered, up to 1/4 inch long.
- Glumes: Lanceolate, pointed at the tip, with a slightly whitened margin, up to 1/8 inch long.
- Lemmas: Lanceolate to narrowly ovate, pointed at the tip, up to 1/6 inch long, with 3 distinct, hairy marginal nerves and 2 obscure, smooth nerves, with a tuft of cobwebby hairs at the base.
- Sepals: 0.
- Petals: 0.
- Stamens: 3.
- Pistils: Ovary superior, smooth.
- Fruits: Grains ellipsoid, smooth.
- Notes: Gleason and Cronquist call this family Poaceae. This species is introduced from Europe into Canada, and is now spreading southward.
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