Scientific Name
Poa secunda J. Presl
Common Name(s)
Sandberg bluegrass
Tribe / Family Name
Poeae
Flowering Period
May to July
Symbol
POSE
Description
Sandberg bluegrass is a native cool-season perennial bunchgrass that reproduces from seeds and tillers. Culms usually range from 15–120 cm in height. Its inflorescence is a narrow to open panicle usually 2–25 cm long, ascending or somewhat lax with short branches, usually not densely flowered, and yellowish-green to purplish. Spikelets are usually 5–10 mm long, usually narrowly lanceolate, little compressed and rather terete, 2- to 5-flowered, and unawned. Ligules are sometimes up to 10 mm long, membranous, acute, usually entire, and smooth or scabrous.
General Info
This drought-tolerant and early colonizing species can be found on rocky slopes, in sagebrush valleys, foothills, ridges, prairies, dry wooded areas, meadows, saline wetlands, montane to subalpine, and lower alpine slopes.
Similar Species
Sandberg bluegrass may look similar to other bluegrass (Poa) species, which all have keeled (boat-shaped) leaf tips, panicle seed heads, and florets without awns. To distinguish it from other bluegrasses, look for its tight, tufted growth habit with short basal leaves, relatively long and slender (more or less open) seed heads, somewhat round spikelets, and lemmas that are short and pubescent to scabrous at the base.
Picture of growth habit.
Inflorescences are narrow to open panicles.
Close-up picture of spikelet.
Close-up picture of lemma.
Close-up picture of membranous ligule.
Illustration of Sandberg bluegrass. USDA-NRCS PLANTS Database / Hitchcock, A.S. (rev. A. Chase). 1950. <i>Manual of the grasses of the United States</i>. USDA Miscellaneous Publication No. 200. Washington, DC.
Distribution map of Sandberg bluegrass. USDA PLANTS Database, 2022.