Marsh bluegrass

Description

Poa leptocoma is a species of grass known by the common names marsh bluegrass and western bog bluegrass. It is native to western North America from Alaska to New Mexico, where it grows in subalpine and alpine climates and the Arctic. It is also known from the Kamchatka Peninsula. Poa leptocoma grows in moist habitats, including meadows and land next to lakes, ponds, and streams. It is a perennial grass growing in loose clumps with stems up to 70 to 100 centimeters in maximum height. The inflorescence is a series of branches bearing spikelets, the branches growing appressed to the stem and then spreading out and drooping from the stem as the spikelets mature. The spikelets are green to blue to dark purple in color. Poa is a genus of about 570 species of grasses, native to the temperate regions of both hemispheres. Common names include meadow-grass (mainly in Europe and Asia), bluegrass (mainly in North America), tussock (some New Zealand species), and speargrass. Poa (πόα) is Greek for "fodder". Poa are members of the subfamily Pooideae of the family Poaceae. Bluegrass, which has green leaves, derives its name from the seed heads, which are blue when the plant is allowed to grow to its natural height of two to three feet (0.6 to 0.9 meters). The genus Poa includes both annual and perennial species. Most are monoecious, but a few are dioecious (separate male and female plants). The leaves are narrow, folded or flat, sometimes bristled, and with the basal sheath flattened or sometimes thickened, with a blunt or hooded apex and membranaceous ligule. Many of the species are important pasture plants, used extensively by grazing livestock. Kentucky bluegrass (Poa pratensis) is the most extensively used cool-season grass used in lawns, sports fields, and golf courses in the United States. Annual bluegrass (Poa annua) can sometimes be considered a weed.