Common name
Annual Poa
Winter Grass
Annual Meadow Grass
Goosegrass

Derivation
Poa L., Sp. Pl. 67 (1753); from the Greek poa (grass, especially as fodder).

annua- annual.

Published in
Sp. Pl. 68 (1753).

Habit
Annual, tufted. Basal leaf sheaths herbaceous, glabrous. Young shoots intravaginal. Culms erect or geniculately ascending or decumbent, slender or delicate, 2–46 cm tall, 2–4-noded. Mid-culm internodes terete, smooth, glabrous. Lateral branches simple or sparsely branched. Leaves mostly basal or basal and cauline. Leaf-sheaths smooth. Ligule an eciliate membrane, 0.9–3.4(–5) mm long, truncate or obtuse. Leaf-blades flat or conduplicate, 0.5–14 cm long, 1–5 mm wide. Leaf-blade surface smooth, glabrous. Leaf-blade margins scaberulous. Leaf-blade apex obtuse or abruptly acute, hooded.

Inflorescence
Inflorescence compound, a panicle. Panicle open or contracted, pyramidal or ovate, 1–12 cm long. Primary panicle branches spreading, 1–2-nate. Panicle branches smooth.

Spikelets
Spikelets solitary. Pedicels 0.3–4 mm long. Fertile spikelets many flowered, comprising 3–4(–10) fertile florets, with diminished florets at the apex, oblong or ovate, laterally compressed, 3–10 mm long, breaking up at maturity. Spikelets disarticulating below each fertile floret. Rhachilla internodes obscured by lemmas, smooth. Floret callus glabrous or pubescent.

Glumes
Glumes persistent, similar. Lower glume lanceolate or ovate, (1.5–)1.9–2.6(–3) mm long, 70–80% length of upper glume, membranous, 1-keeled, 1–3-nerved. Lower glume lateral nerves absent or obscure. Lower glume apex acute. Upper glume elliptic or oblong, 2–3(–4) mm long, 90–100% of length of adjacent fertile lemma, membranous, 1-keeled, 3-nerved. Upper glume apex acute.

Florets
Fertile lemma ovate, oblong in profile, 2.5–4 mm long, membranous, much thinner above, much thinner on margins, 5-nerved. Lemma midnerve eciliate or pubescent. Lemma lateral nerves stopping well short of apex. Lemma surface glabrous or pubescent, hairy on nerves. Lemma apex acute. Palea 90% of length of lemma. Palea keels eciliate or ciliolate. Apical sterile florets resembling fertile though underdeveloped. Lodicules 2, membranous. Anthers 3, (0.5–)0.7–1.3 mm long. Grain with adherent pericarp. Hilum punctiform.

Continental Distribution:
Europe, Africa, Temperate Asia, Tropical Asia, Australasia, Pacific, North America, South America, Antarctica.

Australian Distribution:
Western Australia, Northern Territory, South Australia, Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania.

Western Australia: Irwin, Drummond, Roe, Coolgardie. Northern Territory: Central Australia South. South Australia: Flinders Ranges, Eyre Peninsula, Northern Lofty, Murray, Yorke Peninsula, Southern Lofty, Kangaroo Island, South-eastern. Queensland: Cook, South Kennedy, Port Curtis, Burnett, Wide Bay, Darling Downs, Moreton. New South Wales: North Coast, Central Coast, South Coast, Northern Tablelands, Central Tablelands, Southern Tablelands, North-Western Slopes, Central-Western Slopes, South-Western Slopes, North-Western Plains, South-Western Plains, South Far Western Plains. Victoria: Murray Mallee, Lowan Mallee, Wimmera, Wannon, Grampians, Riverina, Midlands, Victorian Volcanic Plain, Otway Plain, Otway Range, Eastern Highlands, Gippsland Plains, Gippsland Highlands, Wilsons Promontory, Snowfields, East Gippsland. Tasmania: Furneaux Group, North West, North East, West Coast, Central Highlands, Midlands, Ben Lomond, East Coast, South West, Mt Field, Mt Wellington.

Classification. (GPWG 2001):
Pooideae: Poeae

Notes
Introduced. All States and Territories, also on Lord Howe Is., Norfolk Is. and Macquarie Is. Native to the Mediterranean, now widely naturalised. Widespread in a range of habitats, common as a weed in gardens, pastures and disturbed sites such as roadsides. Flowers Sept.–Nov. Fruits Sept.–Nov.