279 



Fig. 273. POA PRATENSIS L. Sp. PI. 67. 1753. KENTUCKY BLUE-GRASS.- 

 A slender, erect, stoloniferous perennial 3-12 dm. (lo-4°) high, with narrow, 

 flat leaves and more or less spreading, usually pyramidal panicles 5-20 cm! 

 (2'-8') long. Sheaths often exceeding the internodes; ligule 1.5 mm. (J") long 

 or less; leaf-blades 1-6 mm. (i"-3") wide, those of the culm 5-15 cm. (2'-6') long, 

 the basal ones much longer. Spikelets (a) 3 to 5 flowered, 4-5 mm. (2"-2i") 

 long, exceeding their pedicels; empty glumes acute, unequal, scabrous on the 

 keel; flowering glumes (b) 3 mm. (U") long, 5-nerved, webbed at the base, the 

 midnerve and marginal ones silky-pubescent below, the intermediate ones 

 naked. -Fields and meadows throughout the United States and British America, 

 abundantly naturalized in the East, indigenous in the North and West. (Europe 

 and Asia.) Summer. 



This species is an extremely valuable pasture grass, and reaches its greatest 

 perfection in the limestone regions of Kentucky and Tennessee. It is much 

 used for a lawn grass in the Eastern and Middle States, for which use it is Avell 

 adapted, as it makes a fine, close sod and is especially valuable for terraces 

 and embankments. 



