Poa annua L.   Poaceae (Grass Family)   Europe   Annual Bluegrass   Wintergreen

                              March Photo

Plant Characteristics:  Tufted winter annual, bright green, glabrous; culms many, often decumbent at base, 5-30 cm. long, leafy; blades lax, flat, up to 4 mm. wide; ligule 1.5-2 mm. long; panicle pyramidal, open, 3-8 cm. long; spikelets 3-6 fld., 3-6 mm. long; glumes unequal, the first 1-nerved, the second usually 3-nerved; lemmas prominently to obscurely pilose along lower third of the 5 distinct nerves, not webbed at base, the keel often ciliate almost throughout.

Habitat:  Common weed of gardens, lawns, orchards, etc., widely distributed in cismontane Calif. and in mts. to 7500 ft.; many Plant Communities; to Alaska, Atlantic, trop. Am.  Jan.-July.

Name:  Greek, poa, the ancient name for grass or fodder.  (Munz, Flora So. Calif. 990).  Latin, annus, annual.  (Jaeger 19).

General:  Occasional in the study area, first found on the Castaways bluffs in 1993, a wet year.  (my comment).      It usually enters lawns as an impurity in the "lawn mixture."  In the lawn it may grow luxuriantly in the spring, later giving rise to unsightly dry spots when it has completed its short period of growth.  (Robbins et al. 101).       The plants sometimes grow in shallow water, then becoming long, slender, and rooting at the nodes.  (Pohl 71).       For those parts of the West that continue to have bounteous water available, this book contains references to the high water consumers: bluegrass, ryegrass, fine-leafed fescues, and bentgrass.  (Sunset Editors, New Western Garden Book 1984,  85).       With very few exceptions the bluegrasses are palatable and nutritious and are often the most important grasses in many parts of the West.  (Hitchcock 100).       About 250 species in all temperate and cool regions.  (Munz, Flora So. Calif. 990).

Text Ref:  Abrams, Vol. I 198; Munz, Flora So. Calif. 991; Roberts 47.

Photo Ref:  Dec-April 93 # 4.

Identity: by R. De Ruff, confirmed by John Johnson.

Computer Ref:  Plant Data 447.

Have plant specimen.

Last edit 4/21/03.