Columbia Basin    Human History projects    Natural History Projects Thompson-Okanagan Upper Fraser Basin Peace River Northen Rockies Northwest

GRASSES OF THE COLUMBIA BASIN OF BRITISH COLUMBIA Heather Stewart, Richard Hebda Major Groups of Grasses Table of Contents Glossary Puccinellia Alkaligrass Named after the Italian botanist Benedetto Puccinelli, this genus favours saline or alkaline habitats. Puccinellia are somewhat palatable as forage, but tend to get easily trampled by livestock in muddy sites. The Puccinellia flowerhead resembles that of Glyceria, but Puccinellia has open, rather than closed, sheaths. Puccinellia Adapted from Cody. 1996 1a. Glumes more or less keeled and sparsely hairy; lemmas pointed...........................................................................................Puccinellia nuttalliana 1b. Glumes not keeled; lemmas blunt;.............................................................Puccinellia distans   Puccinellia distans (Jacq.) Parl. European Alkaligrass Plant: Puccinellia distans is an introduced species that grows to 10-40 cm tall. It is a tufted perennial with rough branches and an open, narrowly branched flowerhead. Leaves and Stem: The smooth to rough sheaths are fully or partially open. There are no auricles. Membranelike ligules are blunt, 1 mm long and have a smooth edge (not toothed). Flat to inrolled leaves are 1.5-3.5 mm wide. Flowerhead and Flowers: The narrowly open flowerhead has spikelets with five to six flowers in each spikelet. The nearly equal glumes are oval shaped, have tiny hairs over the surface as well as along the edge, and are shorter than the first flower. Broadly oval lemmas have a blunt, ragged tip and bear scattered hairs at the base. Habitat: European Alkaligrass grows in salt flats and along lakeshores in the lowland to montane zones. In the Columbia Basin, European Alkaligrass occurs at Kimberley and at Hahas Lake. Similar Species: European Alkaligrass differs from other similar alkaligrasses, such as Nuttall's Alkaligrass (Puccinellia distans), by having lower branches that spread or point downward, 2.0-mm-long lemmas and lemma tips that are always blunt. Puccinellia nuttalliana (Schult.) A.S. Hitchc. Nuttall's Alkaligrass Plant: Puccinellia nuttalliana is a native species that grows to 40-100 cm tall. It is a tufted perennial with a large, open, widely branched flowerhead. Leaves and Stem: Sheaths are open to partially closed. Leaf blades are 1-3 mm wide and sometimes inrolled. There are no auricles. Ligules reach 1-3 mm high. Flowerhead and Flowers: The flowerhead is 6-20 cm long, open, widely branched and has about four branches at each node. Spikelets have four to seven flowers. The two, unequal glumes are much shorter than the spikelet and slightly keeled. The lemmas are 2.5-3.2 mm long, which is as long or longer than the largest glume. The lemma tip narrows abruptly to a small, irregular tip. Habitat: This predominantly interior species grows in relatively moist alkaline meadows but also occurs in saline meadows along the coast. In the Columbia Basin region Nuttall's Alkaligrass grows along the Kettle River and along the Saint Mary's River. Similar Species: The lower branches of the flowerhead of Nuttall's Alkaligrass are either slightly upward pointing, perpendicular or even drooping. This contrasts with European Alkaligrass, which has downward-pointing branches.

	Copyright © Royal BC Museum All rights reserved