Participant Info

Species

Poa trivialis [Poa attica] [Poa stolonifera] [Aira semneutra] [Phalaris semineutra] etc.

Family

Poaceae

CommonName

rough bluegrass

Presence

yes

Status

exotic

EarliestDate

1998

LatestDate

1998

Ecosystem

tundra, ruderal

Geobotanical

NCristos

Counties

Saguache

Passes

Medano

WildlifePreserves

Other Localities

PhotoRecords

Comments

NEED IN SITU PHOTOS. Rough bluegrass has been vouchered only once in the Watershed, by a stream and along a jeep trail north of Medano Pass at 11,000' elevation, by Brian Elliott (Saguache Co, 1998). The elevation is unusual. Poa trivialis is native to Eurasian and North Africa, and typically its spread in the USA is invasive of lawn and other turfgrass. But it has naturalized also in mesic meadows, woods, and along streamsWelsh et al. (1993) that in Utah its recorded elevation reaches 8,000'. P. trivialis is documented from all USA states except North Dakota and Oklahoma and those of the Deep South (in the Appalachian states it is declared noxious). It is found in the lower Rio Grande drainage counties of New Mexico but no farther down stream. Note that the Latin epithet given by Linnaeus, "trivialis," means found everywhere, from tri + valis = "crossroads." Taxonomical revisions have also found it everywhere, and POWO lists 82 synonyms.

Annotation