Florapass
English
Kentucky Bluegrass

Kentucky Bluegrass

Poa pratensis

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

Coming soon to the App Store and Google Play.

How common: Common

Alien species

Kentucky Bluegrass is a common, long‑lived grass with fine, blue‑green leaves. It is widely sown for lawns and pasture and also grows wild in many places across the Northern Hemisphere. Its flowers are wind‑pollinated.

Did you know?

  • A staple in lawn mixes worldwide: it spreads slowly but tolerates trampling well.
  • Its pollen often triggers hay fever in sensitive people.

About the species

Identification

A narrow‑leaved, loosely tufted grass, 20–60 cm tall, spreading with long underground runners. Leaves only 2–3 mm wide, flat or slightly folded with a clear line down the middle, ending in a boat‑shaped tip; often bluish green. Stems smooth and upright. The flower cluster is a loose, open pyramid 5–10 cm long, green at first and later often tinged purple; after flowering it may partly close. To tell it from look‑alikes, check the leaf base: the small, colorless flap where the leaf meets the stem is very short in Kentucky Bluegrass, while similar species have a longer one. Kukkii Suomessa kesä–elokuussa.

Plant group

Grasses, sedges and rushes

Habitat

meadow

Flowering

Jun–Aug

About the habitat

Grows in meadows, lawns, sown pastures, parks and yards, along roadsides and paths, and on waste ground; thrives in places shaped by people and at forest edges. Yleinen Etelä- ja Keski-Suomessa, Pohjois-Lapissa harvinainen.

Sources

Photo: Harry Rose from South West Rocks, Australia, CC BY 2.0 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Poa pratensis plant1 (7398746202).jpg

Text: Pinkka: Verso- ja leviäintunnistus - Kaikki versot, CC BY 4.0 https://laji.fi/taxon/MX.40461

Text: Pinkka: Verso- ja leviäintunnistus - Versot: Monivuotiset rikkakasvit, CC BY 4.0 https://laji.fi/taxon/MX.40461

Text: Pinkka: BIO-503 Suomen kasvisto ja kasvillisuus - Sisävedet: rantaniityt, CC BY 4.0 https://laji.fi/taxon/MX.40461

Text: Pinkka (Luomus), CC BY 4.0 https://laji.fi/taxon/MX.40461

Text: Pinkka: BIO-516 Hyötykasvit - Rehukasveja, CC BY 4.0 https://laji.fi/taxon/MX.40461

Text: Pinkka: Metsäkasvien peruslajintuntemus - Koppisiemeniset, CC BY 4.0 https://laji.fi/taxon/MX.40461

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

See also