Scientific Family
Poaceae
Plant type
Grasses
Riparian
Yes
Grass Description
Origin
Introduced
Season
Cool
Warm
Found in moist to dry meadows, open woods, roadsides, and waste places. Naturalized at middle and high elevations in the Southwest.
Plant Community
Riparian
Montane Conifer Forest
Disturbed Areas
Low elevation
3500
High elevation
11000
General Description
A low growing sod-grass that spreads from rhizomes. Seedheads pyramidal, erect having numerous slender branches, lowest branches usually five in a whorl. Spikelets multi-flowered.
Loosely tufted rhizomatous perennial, slender, wiry stems branch at base. Blades folded or flat, canoe-tipped, two obvious veins either side of mid-vein. Seedhead pyramidal; spikelets laterally compressed with 2 to 5 florets. Lemmas hairy-webbed at base.
Grass type
Perennial mat or sod-forming
Rhizomes
Yes
Stolons
No
Clump Diameter 2 ft or more
No
Bushy - highly branched
No
Height with Seedheads
24 inches or more
Seedhead Structure
Branched - open and spreading
Seedhead droops
No
First bloom month
April
Last bloom month
October
Flower Characteristics
Flowers per Spikelet
Multi-flowered
Spikelets One-Sided
No
Awns
Absent
Three Awns
No
Awns bent
No
Flower and Seedhead Notes
Pyramid-shaped, 1 to 4 inches long, open. Lowermost branches slender, spreading, usually five in a whorl. Individual florets with copious cobweb-like hairs at base, are somewhat contracted after flowering and purplish.
Vegetative Characteristics
Blade is hairy
No
Blade margins white
No
Blade cross-section
Flat
Folded
Blades 3/8 to 4 inches long and thin, flat, folded, or rolled involute. Lower surfaces are hairless, top surfaces are smooth or sparsely hairy with two impressed parallel veins.
Sheath is hairy
Yes
Tufts of hair top of sheath or collar
No
Ligule
Membranous and hairy
Auricles
No
Good early spring forage for livestock and elk, mule deer, and bighorn sheep in early spring and winter when few other plants are growing. Cottontail rabbit and wild turkey consume the leaves and seeds of Kentucky bluegrass.