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R. Schipper

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Shores, meadows, and moist to wet ground generally; pond and stream banks; openings in deciduous or coniferous forests and swamps; bogs and marshes; sometimes on drier sandy or rocky ground, as in aspen forests or openings on rocks near Lake Superior.

A common and variable species, often superficially recognized by the golden tips of the narrow florets. Rarely appears to be rhizomatous. Distinctive in the long ligule (rarely some culms with ligules a little shorter than in the key), short anthers, and ± open panicle at maturity. Poa trivialis is somewhat similar, but the lemmas are very distinctly 5-nerved and the margins are glabrous; in P. palustris, the lemmas are at most obscurely 5-nerved and the margins hairy basally. A few collections, especially from the northern shores of Lake Huron, have the rachilla minutely pubescent as in P. glauca, but the long ligule (ca. 4 mm) and aspect of the plant are as in P. palustris.

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