No. 74. 



POA FENDLERIANA (Steud.) Vasey; Eragrosiis Fendleriana Steud. Syn. 



Gram. 278 (1855). 



Plant perennial, densely tufted or in " bunches." 



Culms erect, simple, scabrid or nearly smooth, leafy to the middle or above, 1 to 2 

 feet tall. 



Leaves of radical tufts and sterile shoots very numerous, with smooth scarious 

 sheaths and rather rigid, flat or conduplicate, scabrous blades 1 line wide and 6 to 12 

 inches long : leaves of the culm 1 to 3 ; sheaths scabrid above, striate, rather loose, open 

 near the throat, shorter than the internodes; blades 2 to 4 inches long; ligule' decur 

 rent, 1 to 2 lines long. 



Inflorescence a rather closely flowered, oblong panicle 3 to 6 inches long ; rays mostly 

 in twos or threes at the 7- to 10-nodes, minutely scabrid, erect or somewhat spreading, 

 1£ inches long or less, subdivided and spikelet-bearing to the base or the longer ones 

 naked below. 



Spikelets compressed, 3£ to 4^ lines long, 3- to 5-flowered with a rudiment; empty 

 glumes broadly ovate, acute, carinate, minutely scabrid, 1- nerved or the second 3-nerved 

 below, 1J to 2 lines long, the first slightly smaller, but neither equaling the lower 

 florets; floral glume ovate-oblong, erose or emarginate at the obtuse apex, carinate, 

 hispid on the keel above, and more or less pubescent on the marginal nerves and mid- 

 nerve below, intermediate nerves less prominent, only the midnerve extending to the 

 apex, 2 to 2£ lines long; palet oblong, emarginate, pubescent on the two keels; sta- 

 mens 3, nearly sessile in the open, divergent, staminate florets; grain linear, some- 

 what triangular, with a short, membranaceous wing at the apex, 1 line long; internode 

 of rachilla J line long or less. 



Plate LXXIY; a, pistillate spikelet; b, first empty glume ; c, second empty glume ; 

 d, floral glume; e, palet not opened, ventral view; /, ovary and abortive stamens; g, 

 staminate panicle. 



Southern California, Arizona, and Nevada. This species was named without 

 description Sclerochloa Californica Munro in Benth. PI. Hartw. 342 (1857), and was 

 described as Atropis Californica Munro in Wats. Bot. Cal. ii. 309 (1880). In Vasey, 

 Cat. Grasses of U. S. 81 (1885) it was again changed to Poa Californica, and by this 

 name it is probably most widely known. Besides these proper synonyms, specimens 

 have been wrongly named P. andina Nutt. and P. tenuifolia Nutt. It is apparently 

 completely dioecious, and this fact is probably one cause for the multiplicity of names 

 and the confusion regarding the species. The staminate panicle is more open and 

 has fewer spikelets than the pistillate, and the glumes are narrower, thinner, less 

 pubescent, and slightly smaller. The spikelets of the staminate plant are flat, with 

 divergent florets open at maturity; while those of the pistillate plant are more tur- 

 gid, with merely carinate margins, the florets remaining erect and closed. 



