''Puccinellia lucida'' is a perennial grass which grows in south-eastern Canada and occasionally elsewhere in the United States. Its specific epithet ''lucida'' means "shining", referring to the plant's lustrous

glume In botany, a glume is a bract (leaf-like structure) below a spikelet in the inflorescence (flower cluster) of grasses (Poaceae) or the flowers of sedges (Cyperaceae). There are two other types of bracts in the spikelets of grasses: the lemma and ...

Description

''Puccinellia lucida'' is a green, loosely cespitose grass growing tall. It has cauline leaves with flaccid, involute blades. Its basal leaf sheaths can be somewhat purple. Its acute

ligule A ligule (from "strap", variant of ''lingula'', from ''lingua'' "tongue") is a thin outgrowth at the junction of leaf and leafstalk of many grasses (Poaceae) and sedges. A ligule is also a strap-shaped extension of the corolla, such as that of a ...

is long. Its diffuse panicle is long, with filiform, scabrous floral branches. Its pale green

spikelet A spikelet, in botany, describes the typical arrangement of the flowers of grasses, sedges and some other Monocots. Each spikelet has one or more florets. The spikelets are further grouped into panicles or spikes. The part of the spikelet that ...

s are long and bear three to five flowers. Its glumes are thin and lustrous; the first glume is long, hyaline above, and minutely serrulate, and its second glume is long. Its

lemma Lemma may refer to: Language and linguistics * Lemma (morphology), the canonical, dictionary or citation form of a word * Lemma (psycholinguistics), a mental abstraction of a word about to be uttered Science and mathematics * Lemma (botany), a ...

s are long, broadly ovate, acute, and are pubescent especially towards their base where hairs become longer. The grass flowers from July into August. ''Puccinellia lucida'' is most similar to the species ''

Puccinellia laurentiana ''Puccinellia laurentiana'' is a perennial grass which grows on gravelly seashores in south-eastern Canada. Its specific epithet "''laurentiana''" refers to the Gulf of St. Lawrence, where it grows. Description ''Puccinellia laurentiana'' has ...

'', '' Puccinellia airoides'', and '' Puccinellia macra''. From the first two species ''P. lucida'' differs in its longer, thinner, and lustrous lemmas; from the first additionally by its scabrous floral branches and softer, greener foliage, and from the second by its longer grain and less exerted panicle. From the third species ''P. lucida'' differs in its involute leaves, diffuse panicle, pale spikelets, and longer lemmas.

Habitat and distribution

''Puccinellia lucida'' occurs in saline marches and coastal sands along the lower

St. Lawrence River The St. Lawrence River (french: Fleuve Saint-Laurent, ) is a large river in the middle latitudes of North America. Its headwaters begin flowing from Lake Ontario in a (roughly) northeasterly direction, into the Gulf of St. Lawrence, connecting ...

in Quebec, but rare populations have also been found in Wyoming to British Columbia and into California.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q67193345

lucida Lucida (pronunciation: ) is an extended family of related typefaces designed by Charles Bigelow and Kris Holmes and released from 1984 onwards. The family is intended to be extremely legible when printed at small size or displayed on a low-resol ...

Plants described in 1916