Puccinellia laurentiana
{{Short description|Species of grass}}
{{Speciesbox
|image =
|genus = Puccinellia
|species = laurentiana
|authority = Fern. & Weath.
}}
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 {{convert|10-30|cm|abbr=on}} high. Its leaves are cauline with involute blades {{convert|3-6|cm|abbr=on}} long. Basal leaf sheaths can be somewhat white. Its ligules are {{convert|1.5|mm|abbr=on}} long and somewhat acute. Its panicle is {{convert|6-13|cm|abbr=on}} long, with stiff and nearly glabrous floral branches. The branches are ascending. Its whitish spikelets are {{convert|4-6.5|mm|abbr=on}} long with three to five flowers. The acute glumes are erose to serrulate; the first glume is {{convert|1-2|mm|abbr=on}} long, narrowly ovate and acutish, with one nerve, and the second is {{convert|2-2.5|mm}} long, broadly ovate and abruptly acute, with three nerves. The ovate lemmas are {{convert|2.3-2.8|mm|abbr=on}} long and profusely pubescent on their lower nerves. The palea are lanceolate and scabrous above. The grass typically flowers from July into early August.{{cite book |title=Gray's Manual of Botany |author= Merrit Lyndon Fernald |year= 1970 |editor= R. C. Rollins |publisher= D. Van Nostrand Company |edition= Eighth (Centennial) - Illustrated|isbn= 0-442-22250-5 |page= 110}}
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.{{cite journal |page= 15 |author= M. L. Fernald and C. A. Weatherby |title= Contributions from the Gray Herbarium of Harvard University.— New Series, No. Xlvi. The Genus Puccinellia in Eastern North America |journal= Rhodora |volume= 18 |number= 205 |year= 1916|jstor= 23298432 }}
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.{{cite journal |url= https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/111528#page/27/mode/1up |page= 25 |title= The Rare Vascular Plants of New Brunswick |author= Harold R. Hinds |publisher= National Museums of Canada |number= 50 |journal= Syllogeus|date= 1983 }}