Glaucous Bluegrass

Foodplant / parasite
Blumeria graminis parasitises live Poa glauca

In Great Britain and/or Ireland:
Foodplant / saprobe
Neoalpakesa coelomycetous anamorph of Neoalpakesa poae is saprobic on dead Poa glauca

Poa glauca is probably one of the most polymorphic species in the genus. In C Asia it has probably been almost consumed by introgressive hybridization. Most gatherings seem to belong to the hybrid complexes P. albertii and P. araratica s.l. Pure populations of P. glauca are rather rare in China.

Culms erect, glaucous, sometimes strongly purplish, (5–) 10–15(–35) cm tall, nodes 1 or 2, uppermost to 1/5 way up culm, covered by sheath; uppermost internode up to 1.5–2 mm wide. Shoots always extravaginal, even when densely tufted. Leaf sheath longer than blade, flat or folded, sometimes quite soft, withering, 1–2 mm wide, margins and both sides of veins scabrid; ligule 1–1.5(–2) mm. Panicle contracted, later quite open, 4–7 cm; branches 1 or 2 per node, 2–3 cm, with a few scattered spikelets. Spikelets oblong-ovate, (3.8–)4–5(–7) mm, tinged with purple, florets 2–4; glumes narrowly lanceolate, unequal, as long as lower lemma; lemma narrowly lanceolate, lower lemma ca. 4 mm, keel shortly villous for 1/2 of length, marginal veins for 1/3; callus sparsely webbed or glabrous. Fl. Jun–Aug.

Gansu, Nei Mongol, Qinghai, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Taiwan, Xinjiang, Xizang, Yunnan [India, Japan, Kazakhstan, Korea, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan; SW Asia (Iran), Europe, North America].

Dry gravel slopes, grassy places on river beaches; 2000–5200 m.

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Poa glauca is a species of grass known by the common names glaucous bluegrass, glaucous meadow-grass and white bluegrass. It has a circumboreal distribution, occurring throughout the northern regions of the Northern Hemisphere. It is also known from Patagonia. It is a common grass, occurring in Arctic and alpine climates and other areas. It can be found throughout the Canadian Arctic Archipelago in many types of habitat, including disturbed and barren areas.

This is a perennial bunchgrass growing small, dense clumps of waxy leaves and stems up to about 80 centimeters in maximum height, but often remaining dwarfed, no more than 10 centimeters tall. The inflorescence is variable in appearance, growing into a short or long arrangement of thin branches bearing spikelets.