Poa mannii Hillebr.

Map

Inflorescence

image credit: Ken Wood

image credit: Ken Wood

Plant

image credit: Ken Wood

Spikelets

image credit: Ken Wood

image credit: Ken Wood

image credit: Ken Wood

Description

Perennials, rhizomes short, extending incrementally in a single direction; culms tufted, strongly compressed, wiry, erect, 5- 7.5 dm tall, glabrous, striate, somewhat glaucous, internodes solid. Sheaths closed, glabrous, striate, usually shorter than internodes, auricles crescent-shaped; ligule completely encircling the culm, ca. 0.5 mm long, membranous except on the side opposite the blade, where a sheath nerve projects as a prominent tooth 2-4 mm long, margins fimbriate, the fimbriate part 1-3 mm wide; blades flat, lax, up to 15 cm long, 2-4 mm wide, upper surface scabrous, lower surface glabrous, apex acuminate, base somewhat clasping, lower leaf blades deciduous from sheaths. Panicles ovoid, usually less than 5 cm long, primary branches 0.5-2 cm long; spikelets arising in the upper 1/2 of the branches, pale greenish or yellowish brown, (2-)4-5-flowered, flattened, 4-7 mm long, rachilla elongate between the florets, subglabrous; glumes slightly unequal, narrow, ca. 3 mm long, 3-nerved, glabrous, apex acuminate; lemmas 3-4 mm long, with cobwebby hairs at base, the keel and lateral nerves scabrous-ciliate, the intermediate nerves not prominent, apex acute; palea lanceolate to narrowly ovate, 3-3.5 mm long, 2-nerved, keeled, the keels scabrous ciliate, margins hyaline, apex acute or bifid. Caryopsis reddish brown, ellipsoid to fusiform, slightly trigonal, ca. 1.5 mm long.
(Description source: O’Connor, P.J. 1990. Poaceae, pp. 1481–1604. In: Wagner W.L., Herbst D.R. & Sohmer S.H. (eds.)., Manual of the flowering plant of Hawaiʻi. Vol. 2. University of Hawaii Press & Bishop Museum Press, Honolulu )