Vascular Plants - Poaceae - Pseudoroegneria:
Pseudoroegneria spicata
Page Author: Don Knoke
bluebunch wheatgrass 
Blooms: June - August
Habit: herb
Duration: perennial
Origin: Native
Distribution: British Columbia south, chiefly east of the Cascade crests, but also in the coastal mountains, to California, east to the Dakotas and New Mexico.
Habitat: From the plains to mid-elevations in the mountains.
Species Description:

General: Tufted perennial, the culms hollow, erect, usually glabrous, 4-10 dm. tall, often forming clumps 1.5 dm. broad.
Leaves: Sheaths open, usually glabrous; auricles well-developed; ligules scarcely 1 mm. long; blades usually flat, 1.5-3 mm. broad, usually glabrous on the back and puberulent on the front; leaves numerous.
Flowers: Inflorescence a loose, open spike 8-15 cm. long; spikelets usually 1 per node, from slightly longer to shorter than the internode, 6- to 8-flowered; glumes 7-9 mm. long, narrowly oblong, 4-5 nerved, sometimes awn-tipped; lemmas 8-11 mm. long, awnless, or with a divergent awn up to 2 cm. long; paleas rounded, slightly exceeding the lemma; anthers purplish.
Accepted Name:
Pseudoroegneria spicata (Pursh) Á. Löve
Synonyms:
Agropyron inerme (Scribn. & J.G. Sm.) Rydb.
Agropyron spicatum Pursh
Agropyron spicatum Pursh var. inerme (Scribn. & J.G. Sm.) Heller
Agropyron spicatum Pursh var. pubescens Elmer
Agropyron vaseyi Scribn. & J.G. Sm.
Elymus spicatus (Pursh) Gould
Elytrigia spicata (Pursh) D.R. Dewey
Pseudoroegneria spicata (Pursh) A. Löve ssp. inermis (Scribn. & J.G. Sm.) A. Löve
Pseudoroegneria spicata (Pursh) A. Löve ssp. spicata
Roegneria spicata (Pursh) Beetle

Treated in Flora of the PNW as:
Agropyron spicatum
Additional Resources:

PNW Herbaria Specimens: View list of Pseudoroegneria spicata specimens in the Consortium of Pacific Northwest Herbaria database.

WTU Herbarium Specimens: View list of Pseudoroegneria spicata specimens in the WTU Herbarium database.

Washington Flora Checklist: Pseudoroegneria spicata treatment.

E-Flora BC: Pseudoroegneria spicata atlas page.

CalPhotos: Pseudoroegneria spicata images.

USDA Plants Database: Pseudoroegneria spicata.
Additional photographs of Pseudoroegneria spicata:
(click on a thumbnail to view larger photo)

Dana Visalli

Bud Kovalchik

Bud Kovalchik

Bud Kovalchik

Bud Kovalchik

Bud Kovalchik

Clayton J. Antieau, 2007

Clayton J. Antieau, 1991

Craig Althen, 2010
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Washington Native Plant Society
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