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Fowl Bluegrass

Fowl Bluegrass

Poa palustris

Identify the Fowl Bluegrass from a photo and log your finds with Florapass.

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How common: Common

Fowl Bluegrass is a tall, loose‑tufted grass with narrow leaves and a slim, open flower head. It is most often seen along shores, ditches and wet meadows, but can also grow on dry, disturbed banks and rocky ground. Its stems are hollow with dark joints and the leaves end in a tiny boat‑shaped tip.

Did you know?

  • It is wind‑pollinated, often shedding pollen from slightly purplish flower clusters.
  • A long, pointed little flap where each leaf meets the stem helps tell it from Wood Bluegrass.

About the species

Identification

Perennial grass forming loose tufts, 40–120 cm. Hollow, smooth stems upright, with dark joints; often a ring of short hairs just below the lower joints. Leaves narrow (1–3 mm), flat or slightly folded, with boat‑shaped tips; they wrap around the stem at the base. A small white flap where leaf meets stem is fairly long (2–6 mm) and pointed. Flower head a narrow, loose cluster 10–20 cm, sometimes slightly purplish. Seeds are tiny grains. Taller and coarser than Wood Bluegrass; the leaf flap is longer and sharper. Flowers in Finland in July–August.

Plant group

Grasses, sedges and rushes

Habitat

shore

Flowering

Jul–Aug

About the habitat

Moist, nutrient‑rich places such as riversides, lake and sea shores, wet meadows, ditches and thickets; also on dry banks, rocks, waste ground and railway verges. Common in southern and central Finland up to Kainuu and the head of the Bothnian Bay; scarcer further north, rarest in eastern Kainuu and northernmost Lapland.

Sources

Photo: Kristian Peters -- Fabelfroh 11:54, 16 September 2007 (UTC), CC BY-SA 3.0 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Poa palustris.jpeg

Text: Pinkka: Kasvitieteen retkeily Lammille - Pähkinärinne ja lehtokasvillisuutta Pääjärven rannalla, Linnavuoren lehtorinne, CC BY 4.0 https://laji.fi/taxon/MX.40472

Text: Wikipedia (Finnish), CC BY-SA 4.0 https://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rantanurmikka

See also