''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 solitary or somewhat tufted
culms growing high. Its leaves are cauline with involute blades long. Basal leaf sheaths can be somewhat white. Its
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 ...
s are long and somewhat acute. Its panicle is long, with stiff and nearly glabrous floral branches. The branches are ascending. Its whitish
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 with three to five flowers. The acute
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 ...
s are erose to serrulate; the first glume is long, narrowly ovate and acutish, with one nerve, and the second is long, broadly ovate and abruptly acute, with three nerves. The ovate
lemmas are long and profusely pubescent on their lower nerves. The
palea are lanceolate and scabrous above. The grass typically flowers from July into early August.
''P. laurentiana'' resembles ''
Puccinellia coarctata'' and ''
Puccinellia vaginata'', but differs from both in its abruptly acuminate whitish lemmas and stiff involute leaves. It additionally differs from ''P. coarctata'' in its lemmas' pubescent nerves.
Habitat and distribution
''Puccinellia laurentiana'' grows on gravelly seashores and sea cliffs in south-eastern Quebec and north-eastern New Brunswick, often on the Gulf of St. Lawrence for which it is named.
[ It can rarely be found in Nova Scotia and Maine.]
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q45121774
laurentiana
Plants described in 1916