Poa compressa L.
Canada bluegrass
Canada bluegrass is a widespread, but introduced, North American plant. It is one of the most common grasses in North America.
Plants: This grass is 1–2′ (30–60 cm) high. Its culms (stems) are green or grayish blue, and relatively flat.
Leaves: Up to 4 ⨉ ⅛″ (10 cm ⨉ 4.5 mm), and bluish in color. In cross section, the leaves may appear fairly flat or V-shaped, and leaf tips are shaped like the keel of a boat. Where they attach to the culm, they wrap around it for a length of about an inch.
Flowers: The stem tips are topped by a flowerhead that is described and drawn as sparse by some sources, and denser by others. It is about 2–5″ (5–12 cm) long and 1–2″ (2.5–5 cm) around. Flower clusters are on short stalks, light green, often tinged with purple, flattened, oblong to egg-shaped, ⅛–¼″ (3–7 mm) long. Each cluster has 3 to 7 florets.
Fruits: Grains are amber brown, 1/32″ (1.5 mm) long.
Habitats: Meadows, roadsides, fields, woodland edges, rocky areas, and gravel pits.
Online References:
Ftp-fc.sc.egov.usda.gov (PDF)
6/5/2010 · Nashua River Rail Trail, Groton Center, Groton, Massachusetts · ≈ 4½ × 3″ (11 × 7.9 cm) 
ID is uncertain 
6/5/2010 · Nashua River Rail Trail, Groton Center, Groton, Massachusetts · ≈ 15 × 12″ (38 × 29 cm) ID is uncertain 
| Kingdom | Plantae | Plants, but not fungi, lichens, or algae (from Stearn's Botanical Latin) |
| Subkingdom | Tracheobionta | Vascular plants—plants with a “circulatory system” for delivering water and nutrients |
| Division | Magnoliophyta | Flowering plants, also known as angiosperms |
| Class | Liliopsida | Monocots (plants with a single seed leaf); includes the lily family |
| Subclass | Commelinidae | Dayflowers and spiderworts, and several others |
| Order | Cyperales | Flowering plants including grasses |
| Family | Poaceae | Grasses (but not sedges or rushes) |
| Genus | Poa | From classical Greek poa (also poie or poia, “grass” or “pasture grass” |
| Species | compressa | “Compressed or flattened” |
Poa compressa description by Thomas H. Kent, not updated.
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