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infestation (Photo: Forest and Kim Starr, USGS)
habit (Photo: Forest and Kim Starr, USGS)
habit in seed (Photo: Forest and Kim Starr, USGS)
leaves (Photo: Forest and Kim Starr, USGS)
immature and mature seed-heads (Photo: Forest and Kim Starr, USGS)
mature flower spikelets (Photo: Forest and Kim Starr, USGS)
Scientific Name
Poa pratensis L.
Family
Gramineae (South Australia)Poaceae (Queensland, New South Wales, the ACT, Victoria, Tasmania, Western Australia and the Northern Territory)
Common Names
English meadow-grass, Kentucky blue grass, Kentucky blue-grass, Kentucky bluegrass, meadow poa, meadow-grass, smooth meadow grass
Origin
Native to north-western Africa (i.e. Morocco), the Azores, the Madeira Islands, the Canary Islands, Europe, western and northern Asia (i.e. Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Cyprus, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, Turkey, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Mongolia), China, the Indian Sub-continent (i.e. northern India and Pakistan) and North America (i.e. Alaska, Canada and the USA).
Naturalised Distribution
This species is widely naturalised in southern Australia (i.e. in eastern and southern New South Wales, the ACT, Victoria, Tasmania, south-eastern South Australia and south-western Western Australia). Also naturalised in the southern parts of the Northern Territory, and on Lord Howe Island and Norfolk Island.
Naturalised beyond its native range in North America, as well as in southern Africa, New Zealand, the Mascarenes and Hawaii.
Notes
Kentucky bluegrass (Poa pratensis) is regarded as an environmental weed in Victoria.