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Info
Subfamily: Pooideae
Genus etymology: Poa is the ancient Greek name for a herb of grass
Species etymology: sandvicensis = From Hawai'i [Sandwich islands]
Photosynthetic type: C3 (cool season)
Nativity: endemic
Legal status: Hawaii DLNR - Endangered
Map
Inflorescence
image credit: Ken Wood
image credit: Ken WoodPlant
image credit: Ken WoodHabit
image credit: Ken Wood
image credit: Ken Wood
image credit: Ken WoodSpikelets
image credit: Ken Wood
image credit: Ken Wood
image credit: Ken Wood
image credit: Ken Wood
image credit: Ken WoodDescription
Cespitose perennials, rhizomes short, forming a hardened culm base; culms erect to slightly decumbent, 3-10 dm tall, slightly laterally compressed, glabrous to slightly retrorsely scabrous, solid, nodes numerous, slightly swollen, glabrous, internodes relatively short, 2.5-6 cm long. Sheaths striate, keeled, retrorsely scabrous toward base, glabrous toward apex, closed to the mouth or splitting with age; ligule membranous, short, dentate, less than 1 mm long, completely encircling the culm, with a hard tooth continuous with the ligule, extending upward from the mouth of the sheath; blades 10-20 cm long, up to 6 mm wide, upper surface scabrous, lower surface glabrous. Panicles ovoid, 3-5(-15) cm long, nodes few, branches whorled, slender, spreading to widely reflexed, the lower branches up to 10 cm long; spikelets arising on the distal 4 of the branches, 8-13-flowered, 10-15 mm long, long-pedicellate, compressed, usually densely scabrous, rachilla disarticulating between the florets, elongate, florets up to 0.5 mm apart; glumes narrow, linear to lanceolate, 2.5-4 mm long, 3-nerved, the nerves scabrous, apex acuminate; lemmas 4-5 mm long, 5- nerved, with a sparse tuft of cobwebby hairs at base especially on the lower florets, keel scabrous, lower part of lateral nerves scabrous, the intermediate nerves faint, margins hyaline; palea nearly as long as lemma, 2-nerved, the 2 keels scabrous-ciliate, apex acute, bifid. Caryopsis golden brown to reddish brown, obovoid, ca. 0.5 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 )