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Western Wetland Flora

Field Office Guide to Plant Species

Nevada Bluegrass
Poa nevadensis Vasey ex Scribn.

JPG -- Species Photo JPG -- Distribution Map

Family: Grass (Gramineae)
Flowering: June-July
Field Marks: This perennial bluegrass is distinguished by its lack of rhizomes, the absence of a tuft of hairs at the base of the lemmas, its unkeeled, hairless lemmas, and its ligules that are 1/10-1/4 inch long.
Habitat: Meadows and valleys, usually in moist areas.
Habit: Tufted perennial grass without rhizomes.
Stems: Upright, unbranched, several in a cluster, up to 18 inches tall, without hairs.
Leaves: Elongated, narrow, flat to folded to rolled into a tube at the tip, up to 12 inches long, up to 1/8 inch wide, without hairs; ligules 1/10-1/4 inch long.
Flowers: Borne in 2- to 6-flowered spikelets, the spikelets 1/3-1/2 inch long, arranged in a narrow panicle up to 8 inches long; lemmas not hairy, unkeeled, up to 1/4 inch long.
Sepals: 0.
Petals: 0.
Stamens: 3.
Pistils: Ovary superior.
Grains: Ellipsoid, smooth.
Notes: This bluegrass is an important forage species for domestic livestock.

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U.S. Department of the Interior | U.S. Geological Survey
URL: http://www.npwrc.usgs.gov/resource/plants/florawe/species/2/poaneva.htm
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Page Last Modified: Saturday, 02-Feb-2013 06:24:09 EST
Menlo Park, CA [caww54]