We had just hiked some of the trails at the Rutgers Ecological Preserve in Piscataway, NJ when I noticed a field of grasses had flowered close to one of the trailhead entrances.
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| Spikelets of Kentucky bluegrass |
I moseyed on over and found flowering spikes on top of short stems clustered in masses across the entire front of the large red sign for the preserve.
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| Membranous collar-like ligule of Kentucky bluegrass |
The Kentucky bluegrass (Poa pratensis) in the area had not been mowed recently, perhaps due to the current Covid-19 lockdown, and the grasses had grown almost knee high and flowered!
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| Panicle of Kentucky bluegrass |
Kentucky bluegrass has been frequently touted as the ideal lawn grass, and I believe this is the first time I had ever seen it flower, since obviously most lawns are mowed rather frequently and the species is kept short and vegetative.
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| Dark green linear leaves of Kentucky bluegrass |
The grass can be identified by its long linear leaves, with boat-shaped tips, as well as a membranous collar-like ligule and loose panicles.
I took some pics of the rather unusual sight, knowing that I would not get to see this again soon in the neatly-manicured lawns of my suburban community.
2 comments:
I am learning grasses (slowly) and this was very helpful.
They're rather harder to ID than other plants, so Good Luck ;-)
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