Kentucky Bluegrass, Canada Bluegrass, Poa pratensis and Poa Compressa

	Grasses of the Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden
	Common Name	Scientific Name	Plant Family	Garden Location	Height	Prime Season
	Kentucky Bluegrass & Canada Bluegrass	Poa pratensis L. & Poa Compressa L.	Poaceae (Grasses)	Upland and Woodland	18 to 24"	Spring to Early Summer, then cool Late Summer into Fall
	Native Status	Kentucky Bluegrass is a perennial introduced from Europe about 1700 and now found throughout the United States and Canada. In Minnesota it is present in most of the counties in the State. Likewise, Canada Bluegrass is an introduction with similar coverage.
Notes	Kentucky Bluegrass was introduced as a forage plant but most of us know it better as a lawn grass, a niche at which it is admirably suited. It is a cool-season, sod-forming grass which will go dormant in hot weather. When left to go to seed, the seed stems are 18 to 24" tall, but will be much less (4 to 6") if grazed or are periodically cut. Stems are somewhat round. The leaf blades are dark green, narrow, 1/8 to 1/4" wide (to 5mm) and 6 to 12 inches long, parallel-sided, with a keel (boat-shape) at the tips. It grows from long, creeping rhizomes. Tiller buds at the base develop into stems or new rhizomes. The leaf sheath is split, dark green, without hair and distinctly veined. The seedhead has an open pyramidal shape and produces many small seeds - about 2,177,000 seeds per pound. The spikelets of the seed head have 3 to 5 florets each. As a forage grass, it is very palatable to horses, cattle and sheep and also to elk and deer (not to forget Canada Geese). In the wrong environment it is invasive and when used for pasture, difficult to get rid of. Canada Bluegrass is similar but has a lighter blue-green foliage, has shorter and and tapering leaf blades, a longer ligule and a flat stem such that it cannot be rolled between thumb and fingers. It also matures later.


Above: Tall seed head of Bluegrass. Photo above and at top left ©Phoebe Waugh.	Above: Mature seedheads of Bluegrass. Photo ©Phoebe Waugh
Below: Complete plant specimen of Kentucky Bluegrass, ©Anna Gardner, Iowa State University.	Below: Drawing of Kentucky Bluegrass courtesy SDA-NRCS PLANTS Database / Hitchcock, A.S. (rev. A. Chase). 1950. Manual of the grasses of the United States. USDA Miscellaneous Publication No. 200. Washington, DC.

Other Links:----------- -----------Common Name Plant List ---------Scientific Name Plant List----------Home Page

References: Plant characteristics are generally from sources 28c, W2, W3, W5 & W6. Distribution principally from W2 and W1. Planting history generally from 1, 4 & 4a. Other sources by specific reference. See Reference List for details.

©2011 Friends of the Wild Flower Garden, Inc. All photos are the property of The Friends of the Wild Flower Garden unless otherwise credited. "www.friendsofthewildflowergarden.org"

020711