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GRASSES OF THE COLUMBIA BASIN OF BRITISH COLUMBIA Heather Stewart, Richard Hebda Major Groups of Grasses Table of Contents Glossary Koeleria Junegrass Koeleria, a genus that occurs in the Temperate to Arctic areas of North America and Eurasia, is named after George Koeler, the author of a book on grasses of France and Germany. This is the only species listed by Douglas et al. (1994) as occurring in British Columbia but there has been some debate as to what to call this species. In their publication Flora of the Pacific Northwest, Hitchcock et al. describe Koeleria macrantha as one of the most variable species in the Pacific Northwest. Koeleria macrantha (Ledeb.) J.A. Schultes f. Koeleria cristata Pers. Junegrass Plant: Koeleria macrantha is a native species that grows to 30-60 cm tall. It is a densely tufted perennial with most of the leaves arranged around the base of the stem. The flowerhead has the appearance of a slightly open spike. It has short branches, but they do not spread. Leaves and Stem: The sheaths are open and the stems are smooth or downy. At the collar of the leaf-margin interface, there are often straight hairs that are 1-1.5 mm long. The 0.5-2-mm-long ligules are highest in the front and very hairy along the edge. The leaf blades are 1-2 mm wide and usually inrolled or folded. They can be covered in short hairs or smooth with minute rough hairs. The tips of the leaf blades are boatlike. Flowerhead and Flowers: The flowerhead is 4-13 cm long and has short branches that point upward. There are mostly two flowers in each spikelet, but occassionally there are up to four. The unequal glumes do not have awns but have a rough appearance on the back and equal or exceed the first flower. The rough lemmas are awnless or have a short awn tip. Habitat: Junegrass grows on dry, open sites in the steppe to subalpine zones. It is common from the Flathead River to Invermere, Radium and Spillimacheen. It is one of the better rangegrasses, but it rarely occurs in abundance and does not have as much foliage as some of the other range grasses. Similar Species: Junegrass is highly variable and many authors consider the genus to contain several species. It is often confused with Fendler's Bluegrass (Poa fendleriana). It can be separated from Fendler's Bluegrass by the smaller spikelets, entirely colourless paleas and the hairy stem axis of the flowerhead. Also, Fendler's Bluegrass has not been found in the Columbia Basin region.

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