KENTUCKY BLUEGRASS
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| File Size: 61 KB |
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Poa pratensis L.
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| Pottawatomie County, Kansas |
| Perennial |
| Height: 4-40 inches |
| Family: Poaceae - Grass Family |
| Flowering Period: May, June, July |
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| Culms: | | Erect, slender, slightly flattened, glabrous. | | Blades: | | Flat or folded, narrow, 2 to 10 inches long, to 1/4 inch wide, mostly glabrous; tips boat-shaped. | | Sheaths: | | Conspicuously veined, glabrous or rough, lower 1/2 united. | | Ligules: | | Membranous, entire. | | Inflorescences: | | Panicles, 1.5 to 5 inches long, 1 to 3 inches wide, pyramid-shaped; branches long, wavy, ascending or spreading, lowermost branches in whorls of 3-5 | | Spikelets: | | Crowded at ends of branches, 3-6-flowered, to 1/4 inch long, nearly as wide, flattened; glumes nearly equal; lemmas with tuft of silky hairs at bases; awns absent. | | Habitat: | | Meadows, fields, open woods, overgrazed pastures, and disturbed sites. | | Distribution: | | Throughout Kansas. | | Forage Value: | | Kentucky bluegrass provides good early-season livestock forage and withstands heavy grazing, but it is not drought-tolerant. Many wildlife species eat the seeds. | | Comments: | | Strongly rhizomatous, mat-forming. Kentucky bluegrass often is used as a lawn grass. Its pollen causes late spring allergy symptoms. |
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| Kentucky bluegrass inflorescence |  | | 56 KB | | Pottawatomie County, Kansas |
| | Kentucky bluegrass |  | | 105 KB | | Pottawatomie County, Kansas |
| | Kentucky bluegrass blade and boat-shaped tip |  | | 29 KB | | Pottawatomie County, Kansas |
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