Publication: Phytologia 71(5): 396 [1992]. 1991.

Origin: Native

Herbarium search: CPNWH

Notes: FNA24: "Poa cusickii grows in rich meadows in sagebrush scrub to rocky alpine slopes, from the southwestern Yukon Territory to Manitoba and North Dakota, south to central California and eastern Colorado. It is gynodioecious or dioecious.

Poa cusickii subsp. purpurascens grows in subalpine habitats in the coastal mountains from southern British Columbia to southern Oregon, with sporadic occurrences eastward in British Columbia to the Rocky Mountains and south to the central Sierra Nevada. It tends to differ from subsp. epilis in having predominantly extravaginal branching, fewer and longer spikelets, and longer lemmas that are usually sparsely hairy on the keel and marginal veins. It differs from P. chambersii in lacking rhizomes and in being strictly pistillate; and from P. porsildii in its longer spikelets and in tending to have longer panicles with more spikelets.

Last updated 12/16/2023 by David Giblin.