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Douglas' bluegrass

Poa douglasii

Also called Sanddune Bluegrass

Douglas' bluegrass
Photo: Robert Steers/NPS, CC0

Douglas' bluegrass (Poa douglasii) is a small, dense perennial grass native to the California coast, where it grows in shifting sand dunes. It spreads by rhizomes and stolons, so it is best grown in loose, sandy, free-draining conditions in full sun.

Family
Poaceae (Grass family)
Grows as
Grass, Perennial
Light
Full sun
Water
Water sparingly once established; it tolerates dry sandy soil and suffers from waterlogging.
Soil
Loose, sandy, free-draining soil
Temperature
10–25 °C; tolerates mild coastal conditions and light frost
How easy
Moderate
Safety
Not known to be toxic
Native range
W. California
Climate
temperate

About

Poa douglasii is a species of grass known by the common names Douglas' bluegrass and sand dune bluegrass. It is endemic to the coastline of California, where it grows in shifting sand dunes. It can be found mostly along the Central Coast and Channel Islands, and occasionally on the North Coast north of Mendocino. It is a perennial grass growing small, dense clumps up to about 30 centimeters in maximum height. It grows from a network of long rhizomes and stolons that anchor the grass to its loose sandy substrate; this network may be up to one meter long. The inflorescence is a dense, oval-shaped series of overlapping spikelets. The grass is dioecious, with male and female individuals producing different types of flowers in their inflorescences. This species, like many sand-dune endemic plants, is threatened by invasive species.

Other Poa plants

Catalina grass · Catalina grass · Short bluegrass · Limestone Cushion Poa · Poa acinaciphylla · Grass Lane Cove River · Alpigene Bluegrass · Alpine bluegrass · Grove bluegrass · Hartz's Bluegrass · Narrow-leaved meadow-grass · Annual Meadow Grass

Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Poa douglasii by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.

The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.

Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.

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