Glaucantha bluegrass

Poa glauca is a densely tufted perennial grass of the Poaceae family growing 10-40 cm tall, forming compact bunches from short rhizomes or basal innovations. The entire plant is notably glaucous, covered with a fine bluish-grey waxy bloom that gives it its name. Leaf blades are flat to involute, 1-3 mm wide, stiff, smooth, with prow-shaped tips characteristic of the genus; sheaths are smooth and the ligule is membranous and short. The inflorescence is a narrow, contracted, often purplish panicle 3-8 cm long with short, ascending branches bearing crowded spikelets. Each spikelet is 3-6 mm long containing 2-5 florets; lemmas are ovate-lanceolate, keeled, with conspicuous webbed hairs at the base and short pubescence on the lower keel and marginal veins. A circumboreal arctic-alpine species, it occurs on stony tundra, exposed ridges, gravel bars, and high-elevation rocks across the Northern Hemisphere. Flowering takes place June to August.