POA COMPRESSA
5. Poa compressa L. CANADA BLUE-GRASS, WIRE-GRASS, FLAT-STEMMED MEADOW-GRASS.
A bluish green, flat-stemmed perennial with creeping rootstocks and forming a loose turf; frequent on dry usually sterile soil in meadows, pastures and waste places; sometimes used in mixtures for seeding pastures and lawns.
Leaves folded in the bud-shoot. Sheath strongly compressed and sharply keeled, glabrous, green or purple-tinged, usually split to base, the margins being hyaline and not overlapping. Auricles absent. Collar narrow, glabrous, light green, divided by the midrib. Ligule membranous, white, short (0.2 to 1.2 mm. long), truncate or emarginate, entire. Blade 2 to 5 mm. wide, 2 to 10 cm. long, flat to slightly V-shaped, sharply keeled below, broadest at base, tapering throughout its length to a boat-shaped tip, glabrous, not ridged, bluish green, somewhat glaucous; margins slightly scabrous; the row of motor cells on each side of the midrib show as two light lines by transmitted light; the short, firm blades make broad angles with the axis of the shoot.
The leaves of this grass, in contrast to those of P. pratensis are a pale bluish or glaucous green, rather than a deep green colour, and are never shiny and always glabrous. The ligule is longer, paler and more conspicuous.
