Poa colensoi

Poa colensoi, commonly called blue tussock-grass, is a small densely tufted perennial grass in the Poaceae family, endemic to New Zealand where it is widespread in montane to alpine grasslands, rocky bluffs, and stony fellfields. Plants form compact, hemispherical tufts 10 to 30 centimetres tall, with a fibrous root system and short basal shoots clothed in old leaf bases. Leaves are stiff, narrow and bristle-like, 0.5 to 1 millimetre wide and 5 to 20 centimetres long, smooth or scabrid, and usually pale glaucous-blue, giving the species its common name. The membranous ligule is short and truncate. The inflorescence is a slender, open to slightly contracted panicle 4 to 12 centimetres long, with delicate ascending branches bearing few-flowered, narrowly ovate spikelets 4 to 7 millimetres long; lemmas are awnless and finely silky-hairy at the base. It is an important component of native New Zealand alpine vegetation.