Poa alpina L.

• Authority

  Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.

• Family

  Poaceae

• Scientific Name

  Poa alpina L.

• Description

  Species Description - Culms 1–4 dm, scarcely tufted, without rhizomes; lvs mostly on short basal shoots, 3–5 cm × 1.5–4 mm; cauline lvs 1 or 2, erect, 1–5 cm × 2–3 mm; ligule (1–)2–4 mm; panicle long-pedunculate, pyramidal, 3–6 cm, nearly as wide, its branches mostly paired, soon divaricately spreading; spikelets 4.5–6(–7) mm, (3)4–6-fld; glumes ovate, over half as wide as long, herbaceous- margined, the first 2.4–3.9 mm, the second 2.6–4.5 mm; lemmas 2.9–4.5 mm, spreading-hairy on the lower half of the keel and marginal veins, and to some extent in the interveinal areas below, not webbed, the intermediate veins obscure; anthers 1.5–2.2 mm; 2n=14–74. Calcareous shores and ledges; circumboreal, s. to N.S., Que., the Bruce Peninsula of Ont., and Keweenaw Point, Mich. (P. ×gaspensis)

• Common Names

  alpine bluegrass