MANUAL OF THE GRASSES OF THE UNITED STATES 



125 



flattened purplish base, 30 to 150 cm. 

 tall; sheaths keeled, sometimes sca- 

 berulous; ligule 3 to 5 mm. long, or 

 only 1 mm. on the innovations; blades 

 1 to 2 mm. wide; panicle pyramidal or 

 oblong, nodding, yellowish green or 

 purplish, 10 to 30 cm. long, the 

 branches in rather distant fascicles, 

 naked below; spikelets 2- to 4-flow- 

 ered, about 4 mm. long; glumes lan- 

 ceolate, acute, shorter than the first 

 floret; lemmas 2.5 to 3 mm. long, usu- 

 ally bronzed at the tip, webbed at 



ginal nerves, the intermediate nerves 

 faint. % — Grassy slopes and open 

 woods at medium altitudes, usually 

 not extending much above timber 

 line, Quebec to British Columbia and 

 Washington, south to Vermont, Mich- 

 igan, Minnesota, western Nebraska, 

 Texas, and Arizona. 



4. Homalopoae. — Culms flattened; 

 blades flat or conduplicate, with 

 a conspicuous boat-shaped tip, 

 often splitting at the apex. 



Figure 153.— Poa palustris. Panicle, X 1 ; floret, X 10. (Suksdorf 7022, Wash.) 



base, villous on the keel and marginal 

 nerves. % — Meadows and moist 

 open ground, at low and medium alti- 

 tudes, Newfoundland and Quebec to 

 Alaska, south to Virginia, Missouri, 

 Nebraska, New Mexico, and Cali- 

 fornia (Sierra Valley, Siskiyou Coun- 

 ty) ; Eurasia. 



40. Poa interior Rydb. Inland 

 bluegrass. (Fig. 154.) Culms erect 

 from a usually densely tufted erect 

 base, commonly rather stiff, often 

 scabrous below the panicle, 20 to 50 

 cm. tall; sheaths slightly keeled or 

 terete; ligule usually less than 1 mm. 

 long; blades 1 to 2 mm. wide; panicle 

 narrowly pyramidal, 5 to 10 cm. long, 

 the branches ascending, the lower 2 or 

 3 spikelets about 4 mm. long, 2- to 

 4-flowered; glumes relatively broad, 

 acute to acuminate; lemmas 3 to 3.5 

 mm. long, webbed at base (the web 

 sometimes scant or obscure), villous 

 on the lower half of the keel and mar- 



FlGXTBE 154. 



-Poa interior. Panicle, X 1; floret, X 10. 

 (Clements 297, Colo.) 



