Wood Bluegrass

Foodplant / spot causer
pycnidium of Ascochyta coelomycetous anamorph of Ascochyta agrostidis causes spots on live leaf of Agrostis alba

In Great Britain and/or Ireland:
Foodplant / spot causer
amphigenous, numerous, black pycnidium of Septoria coelomycetous anamorph of Septoria bromi causes spots on leaf of Agrostis alba

Poa nemoralis is represented by many cytological races, which form a huge series of agamic complexes of very variable hybrid populations. Such a complex, arising from hybridization with P. palustris, is treated here as P. lapponica and is common in NE Europe, Siberia, and Mongolia. The many hybrids with P. versicolor subsp. relaxa and P. nemoraliformis, reported by Ovczinnikov (in Ovczinnikov & Chukavina, Fl. Tadzhiksk. SSR 1: 144. 1957), also seem to form agamic complexes. Poa nemoralis commonly hybridizes with P. glauca in Scandinavia, but obvious hybrids between these species have not yet been found in China. Pure populations of P. nemoralis usually occur in broad-leaved forests, quite far from P. nemoraliformis, P. palustris, and P. versicolor subsp. relaxa.

Wood Meadow-grass is a common species in the Himalayas and is quite tolerant of shade, 1300-4000m.

Culms loosely tufted, 30–80(–100) cm tall, erect or lightly geniculate, nodes 3–5(–6), uppermost at or above 1/2 way up. Leaf sheaths smooth or scabrid, shorter than blade; blade flat, soft, 5–12 cm × 1–3 mm, margins and both surfaces scabrid; ligule 0.2–1(–1.5) mm, truncate to obtuse. Panicle slender, 5–15(–22) cm, branches spreading, 2–5 per node, basal primary branch 1/2–2/3 as long as panicle with spikelets in distal 1/2. Spikelets lanceolate, 3.5–5(–6) mm, florets mostly 3; rachilla pilose; glumes narrowly lanceolate, 2.5–3.7 mm; lemma oblong-lanceolate, 2.5–3.7(–4.2) mm, keel shortly villous for 1/2 of length, marginal veins to 1/3, apex membranous; callus sparsely webbed, rarely glabrous; palea smooth and glabrous between keels. Anthers 1.3–1.5 mm. Fl. May–Jun. 2n = 14, 35, 70.

Loosely tufted perennial without rhizomes; culms (15-)30-70(90)cm high, erect or spreading. Leaf-blades flat, 5-12cm long, 1-3mm wide, flaccid, finely to abruptly pointed, smooth on the margins, smooth or faintly scaberulous on the surfaces; ligule truncate, up to 1mm long. Panicle narrowly ovate, 5-10 (-20) cm long, lax, nodding; branches 2-5 at the lower nodes, ascending or spreading, capillary, flexuous, scaberulous. Spikelets 2-5-flowered, lanceolate to ovate or oblong, 3-6 mm long, green; glumes subequal, 3-nerved, the lower lanceolate, ± subulate in side-view, 2-3mm long, the upper broader, 2.5-3.5mm long; lemmas oblong to lanceolate-oblong in side-view, 2.6-3.6 mm long, blunt, ciliate on the keel and marginal nerves, woolly at the base; palea about as long as the lemma, minutely scabrid along the keels; anthers 1.3-2 mm long.

Widespread in temperate regions.

Gansu, Guizhou, Hebei, Heilongjiang, Jilin, Liaoning, Nei Mongol, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Sichuan, Xinjiang, Xizang, Yunnan [Bhutan, India, Japan, Kazakhstan, Korea, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan; SW Asia, Europe, naturalized in North America].

Distribution: Pakistan (Punjab, N.W.F.P., Gilgit & Kashmir); widespread in Europe and temperate Asia; North America.

2600-4100 m

Fl. & Fr. Per.: June-August.

Forested slopes, shady and moist places, forest margins, grassy places among thickets; 1000–4200 m.

Agrostis alba L. Sp. PI. 63. 1753
Agrostis dispar Michx. Fl. Bor. Am. 1: 52. 1803. (Type from South Carolina.) Decandolia alba Bastard, Fl. Maine-et-Loire 29. 1809. (Based on Agrostis alba L.) Vilfa alba Beauv. Agrost. 16, 146, 181. 1812. (Based on Agrostis alba L.) Vilfa dispar Beauv. Agrost. 16, 147, 181. 1812. (Based on Agrostis dispar Michx.) Agrostis alba var. maior Gaudin, Fl. Helv. 1: 189. 1828. (Type from Switzerland.) Agrostis alba var. dispar Wood, Class-Book ed. 1861. 774. 1861. (Based on A. dispar Michx.) Agrostis Virletii Fourn. Mex. PI. Gram. 96. 1886. (Type from San Luis Potosi, Mexico, Virlet 1345.) Agrestis alba Lunell. Am. Midi. Nat. 4: 216. 1915. (Based on Agrostis alba L.) Agrostis stolonifera var. major Farwell, Rep. Mich. Acad. 21: 351. 1920. (Based on A. alba var. major Gaudin.)
Differing from A. stolonifera in its usually erect more robust culms, sometimes as much as 1-1.5 meters tall, the base erect or decumbent, with strong creeping rhizomes; blades 5-10 mm. wide; panicle pyramidal-oblong, usually reddish, as much as 20 cm. long, the branches spreading in anthesis, sometimes contracting later; lemma rarely awned.
Tyi>e locality: Europe.
Distribution: Escaped from cultivation in all the cooler parts of the United States, common in the northern states, occasional in the southern states; native of Eurasia.

Perennials, Terrestrial, not aquatic, Stems nodes swollen or brittle, Stems erect or ascending, Stems geniculate, decumbent, or lax, sometimes rooting at nodes, Stems caespitose, tufted, or clustered, Stems terete, round in cross section, or polygonal, Stem internodes hollow, Stems with inflorescence less than 1 m tall, Stems, culms, or scapes exceeding basal leaves, Leaves most ly basal, below middle of stem, Leaves conspicuously 2-ranked, distichous, Leaves sheathing at base, Leaf sheath mostly open, or loose, Leaf sheath smooth, glabrous, Leaf sheath or blade keeled, Leaf sheath and blade differentiated, Leaf blades linear, Leaf blades 2-10 mm wide, Leaf blades mostly flat, Leaf blades mostly glabrous, Leaf blades more or less hairy, Leaf blades scabrous, roughened, or wrinkled, Ligule present, Ligule an unfringed eciliate membrane, Inflorescence terminal, Inflorescence an open panicle, openly paniculate, branches spreading, Inflorescence solitary, with 1 spike, fascicle, glomerule, head, or cluster per stem or culm, Inflorescence with 2-10 branches, Inflorescence branches more than 10 to numerous, Flowers bisexual, Spikelets pedicellate, Spikelets laterally compressed, Spikelet less than 3 mm wide, Spikelets with 2 florets, Spikelets with 3-7 florets, Spikelets solitary at rachis nodes, Spikelets all alike and fertille, Spikelets bisexual, Spike lets disarticulating above the glumes, glumes persistent, Spikelets disarticulating beneath or between the florets, Rachilla or pedicel glabrous, Glumes present, empty bracts, Glumes 2 clearly present, Glumes equal or subequal, Glumes distinctly unequal, Glumes shorter than adjacent lemma, Glumes keeled or winged, Glumes 3 nerved, Lemmas thin, chartaceous, hyaline, cartilaginous, or membranous, Lemma similar in texture to glumes, Lemma 5-7 nerved, Lemma glabrous, Lemma body or surface hairy, Lemma apex acute or acuminate, Lemma awnless, Lemma margins thin, lying flat, Lemma straight, Callus or base of lemma evidently hairy, Callus hairs shorter than lemma, Lemma with long cobwebby white hairs, Palea present, well developed, Palea about equal to lemma, Palea 2 nerved or 2 keeled, Stamens 3, Styles 2-fid, deeply 2-branched, Stigmas 2, Fruit - caryopsis, Caryopsis ellipsoid, longitudinally grooved, hilum long-linear.

Poa nemoralis, the wood bluegrass, is a perennial plant in the family Poaceae. The late-growing grass is fairly nutritious for livestock, which feed on it in the autumn, and it is used as a lawn grass for shady situations.