Scientific Name
Poa fendleriana (Steud.) Vasey (Synonyms: Poa longiligula)
Common Name(s)
Muttongrass, mutton bluegrass
Tribe / Family Name
Poeae
Flowering Period
July to August
Symbol
POFE
Description
Muttongrass is a native cool-season perennial bunchgrass rarely with rhizomes (rhizomes usually short and inconspicuous); reproduction from seeds and tillers, but rarely from rhizomes. Culms range from 15–70 cm in height. Its inflorescence is an erect, contracted, oblong, congested panicle usually 5–10 cm long and pale to deep purple or occasionally tawny. Spikelets are usually 4–8 mm long, strongly compressed, keeled throughout, papery, 3- to 6-flowered, and unawned; plants usually dioecious, mostly pistillate, but with an occasional plant with staminate or perfect flowers. Ligules are highly variable (as short as 0.5 mm long to elongate and sometimes exceeding 10 mm long, but mostly 3–8 mm long), membranous, acuminate, obtuse, or truncate, ciliolate, puberulent abaxially, and decurrent or not.
General Info
This drought-tolerant plant can be found in dry soils in rocky terrain, sagebrush scrub, foothills, plains, mountains, dry open woods, and montane to subalpine areas.
Similar Species
Muttongrass may look similar to other bluegrass (Poa) plants, which all have keeled or boat-shaped leaf tips, panicle seed heads, and unawned florets. To distinguish it from other bluegrasses, remember to look for its short and thick seed heads, strongly compressed spikelets, and lemmas that are sericeous along the keels and marginal nerves.
Picture of growth habit.
Inflorescence is a contracted, narrowly lanceoloid to ovoid, congested panicle.
Close-up picture of spikelet.
Close-up picture of lemma.
Close-up picture of membranous ligule.
Illustration of muttongrass. Le Hall, 2018.
Distribution map of muttongrass. USDA PLANTS Database, 2022.