TEXAS BLUEGRASS
File Size: 97 KB
 
Poa arachnifera  Torr.
Comanche County, Kansas
Perennial
Height: 10-28 inches
Family: Poaceae - Grass Family
Flowering Period:   April, May
Culms: Erect, slightly flattened, hollow, glabrous.
Blades: Few, firm, folded to flat, 1.2 to 12 inches long, to 1/6 inch wide; tips boat-shaped.
Sheaths: Long, loose, more or less flattened, slightly keeled, closed at base.
Ligules: Pointed, to 1/6 inch long.
Inflorescences: Panicle, erect, dense, contracted, 2 to 6 inches long, .4 to 1.6 inch wide, lowest node with 2-5 branches; branches ascending, crowded, light greenish, spikelet-bearing to base, occasionally interrupted below.
Spikelets: Variable, 2 forms; glumes greenish, pointed, first glume 1-3-nerved, second glume usually 3-nerved; staminate spikelets 2-7-flowered, mostly 1/6 to 1/4 inch long; lemmas nearly glabrous except for sparse tuft of cobwebby hairs at base; pistillate spikelets 1-5-flowered, 1/5 to 2/5 inch long; lemmas with dense tuft of long cobwebby hairs at base.
Habitat: Pastures, prairies, and roadsides; calcareous or sandy clay soils.
Distribution: South 1/4 of Kansas.
Comments: Texas bluegrass is dioecious (male and female flowers occur on separate plants). The name arachnifera "spider-bearing" is in reference to the long white hairs of the spikelets which resemble a spider web. Texas bluegrass will increase under light disturbance but disappear with heavy grazing.

Texas bluegrass inflorescence
64 KB
Comanche County, Kansas
Texas bluegrass
68 KB
Comanche County, Kansas
Texas bluegrass spikelets
49 KB
Comanche County, Kansas
Texas bluegrass pistillate spikelets
39 KB
Comanche County, Kansas
Texas bluegrass
103 KB
Comanche County, Kansas
Texas bluegrass blade
21 KB
Comanche County, Kansas