Poa cusickii
Encyclopedia
Poa cusickii is a species of grass
known by the common name Cusick's bluegrass. It is native to western North America from Yukon
to Colorado
to eastern California
, where it grows in many types of habitat, including high mountain meadows and slopes, sagebrush
scrub, and forests.
It is a perennial bunchgrass growing dense, sometimes large, clumps up to about 60 centimeters in maximum height. The narrow leaves are firm and sometimes rolled along the edges. The longest leaves are located around the middle of the stem. The inflorescence
is a dense, narrow series of overlapping branches bearing up to 100 spikelets in total.
The grass is dioecious
, with male and female individuals producing different types of flowers in their inflorescences. The plant often reproduces vegetatively
via tillers
, or via apomixis
with unfertilized seeds, and some populations are made up only of female individuals. One subspecies, ssp. purpurascens, is all female.
Poaceae
The Poaceae is a large and nearly ubiquitous family of flowering plants. Members of this family are commonly called grasses, although the term "grass" is also applied to plants that are not in the Poaceae lineage, including the rushes and sedges...
known by the common name Cusick's bluegrass. It is native to western North America from Yukon
Yukon
Yukon is the westernmost and smallest of Canada's three federal territories. It was named after the Yukon River. The word Yukon means "Great River" in Gwich’in....
to Colorado
Colorado
Colorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains...
to eastern California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, where it grows in many types of habitat, including high mountain meadows and slopes, sagebrush
Sagebrush
Sagebrush is a common name of a number of shrubby plant species in the genus Artemisia native to western North America;Or, the sagebrush steppe ecoregion, having one or more kinds of sagebrush, bunchgrasses and others;...
scrub, and forests.
It is a perennial bunchgrass growing dense, sometimes large, clumps up to about 60 centimeters in maximum height. The narrow leaves are firm and sometimes rolled along the edges. The longest leaves are located around the middle of the stem. The inflorescence
Inflorescence
An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Strictly, it is the part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed and which is accordingly modified...
is a dense, narrow series of overlapping branches bearing up to 100 spikelets in total.
The grass is dioecious
Plant sexuality
Plant sexuality covers the wide variety of sexual reproduction systems found across the plant kingdom. This article describes morphological aspects of sexual reproduction of plants....
, with male and female individuals producing different types of flowers in their inflorescences. The plant often reproduces vegetatively
Vegetative reproduction
Vegetative reproduction is a form of asexual reproduction in plants. It is a process by which new individuals arise without production of seeds or spores...
via tillers
Tiller (botany)
A tiller is a stem produced by grass plants, and refers to all shoots that grow after the initial parent shoot grows from a seed. Tillers are segmented, each segment possessing its own two-part leaf...
, or via apomixis
Apomixis
In botany, apomixis was defined by Winkler as replacement of the normal sexual reproduction by asexual reproduction, without fertilization. This definition notably does not mention meiosis...
with unfertilized seeds, and some populations are made up only of female individuals. One subspecies, ssp. purpurascens, is all female.