Plants usually perennial, annual in some environments that have a sufficient growing season for seed production in a single year; cespitose or matlike. Culms 2-19 cm, erect or procumbent, not rooting at the lower nodes, glabrous; prophylls 4-10 mm. Sheaths not inflated, those of the basal leaves usually fused only near the base, those of the flag leaves closed for at least 1/2 their length; auricles absent; ligules membranous, glabrous, acute; blades flat or conduplicate. Inflorescences panicles, dense or diffuse. Spikelets pedicellate, with 1 floret, laterally compressed to nearly terete; rachillas not prolonged beyond the florets; disarticulation above the glumes and beneath the florets. Glumes to 1/3 the length of the florets, ovate, without veins, caducous or persistent, unawned; lower glumes highly reduced; calluses short, glabrous; lemmas 1-3-veined, not strongly keeled, apices acute to rounded, unawned; paleas subequal to the lemmas; lodicules 2, free, glabrous; anthers 1 or 2; ovaries glabrous. Caryopses exceeding the lemmas and exposed at maturity, x = 7.

Distribution

Colo., Alaska, Alta., B.C., Greenland, Nfld. and Labr. (Nfld.), N.W.T., Nunavut, Ont., Que., Yukon, Wyo., Mont.

Discussion

Phippsia has two species, one of which is found in arctic Eurasia, Greenland, and the Canadian arctic islands; the other is circumpolar in the arctic, and is also known from the Rocky Mountains of North America and the high Andes of South America.

Selected References

Aares, E., M. Nurminiemi, and C. Brochmann. 2000. Incongruent phylogeographies in spite of similar morphology, ecology, and distribution: Phippsia algida and P. concinna (Poaceae) in the North Atlantic region. PI. Syst. Evol. 220:241-261

Aiken, S.G., L.L. Consaul, and M.J. Dallwitz. 1995 on. Grasses of the Canadian arctic archipelago: Descriptions, illustrations, identification, and information retrieval, http://www.mun.ca/biology/delta/arcticf/poa/index.htm

Bay, C. 1992. A phytogeographical study of the vascular plants of northern Greenland—north of 74° northern latitude. Meddel. Granland, Biosci. 36:1-102

Steen, N.W., R. Elven, and I. Nordal. 2004. Hybrid origin of the arctic ×Pucciphippsia vacillans (Poaceae): Evidence from Svalbard plants. Pi. Syst. Evol. 245:215-238.

Lower Taxa

Phippsia algida, Phippsia concinna

Key

1	Panicles (0.5)1-2(3) cm long, 3-7 mm wide; spikelet length less than twice the width; glumes caducous, often colorless when present; lemmas often yellow-green, purple coloration, when present, not reaching the apices, glabrous or with a few soft hairs on the lower 1/3, caryopses ellipsoid, widest at or just above the middle	Phippsia algida
1	Panicles (1)3-9 cm long, (4)5-15 mm wide; spikelet length 2-3 times the width; glumes, particularly the upper glumes, not caducous, often still present on the previous season's growth, often with some deep purple coloration; lemmas usually purplish-red with a strong coloration over the veins, the color over the midvein extending to the apex, veins with stiff hairs, soft or stiff hairs elsewhere over the lower 1/2 - 2/3 of the surface; caryopses ovoid, widest below the middle	Phippsia concinna