Annual Poa

Annual Poa photos

Family Name: Grass (Poaceae syn. Gramineae)

Scientific Name:

Poa annua

Annual Poa tussock
Photo: A J Brown

Other Common Names:

Winter Grass, Annual Meadow-grass, Goose-grass

Status:

Native to Europe and temperate Asia. Naturalised throughout Australia.

Plant Description:

Small annual grass to from 2-30 cm tall with flat, smooth, often pale green leaves to 12 cm long and 5 mm wide with a boat-shaped tip. Flower-heads are open and spreading panicles to 10 cm long and 6 cm wide. Each spikelet contains 3-6 green or purplish florets which are hairy in their lower halves.

Habitat:

A very common grass across most of Victoria, although uncommon in the Mallee. A common weed of gardens, lawns, pastures and disturbed areas, wherever bare ground and moisture are available. Essentially a fresh-water species, it may appear as an ephemeral annual on saline land over the colder and wetter months but usually disappears once soils dry out and conditions become more saline.

Region	Salinity Class	Waterlogging Class
Mallee, Loddon Murray	S0	W2, W3
Central and Northern, Wimmera	S0, *S1	W1, W2
Western, Gippsland	S0, S1, S2	W0, W1, W2

*may be found on or fringing saline sites during the wetter parts of the year

Comments:

Poa is a large world-wide grass genus with at least 30 species, both native and introduced, represented in Victoria. Similar to Kentucky Blue-grass (Poa pratensis) but generally much smaller in growth.

Annual Poa photos

Flower-head of Annual Poa Photo: A J Brown	Annual Poa ligule and leaf blade Photo: A J Brown
Spikelets of Annual Poa with exserted anthers Photo: A J Brown	Leaf tip of Annual Poa Photo: A J Brown

Page top