林早熟禾 lin zao shu he

Poa major D. F. Cui.

Culms loosely to densely tufted, 30–50 cm tall, erect, usually hard, scabrid, nodes 2–5, uppermost in lower 1/3; base covered by withered leaf sheaths. Shoots extravaginal. Leaf sheath scabrid, longer than blade; blade usually flat, later folded or inrolled, 1.5–2.5 mm wide, scabrid; ligule (0.5–)1–1.5 mm. Panicle oblong, conferted, 8–16(–20) cm, branches thin, 2–4.5 cm. Spikelets elliptic-lanceolate, green or tinged with purple, 4–6(–6.5) mm, florets 3 or 4, usually with upper floret rudimentary; rachilla usually glabrous; glumes oblong-lanceolate, apex acuminate, lower glume ca. 3.5 mm, upper glume 4–4.2 mm, margins dry membranous, keel scabrid; lemma oblong-lanceolate, 3.2–4 mm; margins membranous, keel and marginal veins usually short-villous to glabrous along lower 1/2; callus glabrous. Anthers ca. 2 mm. Fl. Jun–Aug.

Open grasslands on rocky slopes, meadows along forest margins, thickets; 1100–4300 m. Xinjiang, Xizang [India, Tajikistan].

Poa nemoraliformis differs from P. nemoralis in its longer ligule 1–1.5 mm (vs. 0.2–1 mm), glabrous rachilla, and unwebbed lemma callus, and differs from P. versicolor subsp. relaxa in never forming dense tufts. The syntypes represent a sequence of increasing xeromorphism (leaf blades more firm, position of uppermost node varying from 1/2 to 1/3 way up culm). The first two syntypes differ from the description in the protologue in having the rachilla shortly hairy; the second syntype differs in having a long ligule ca. 2.4 mm.

Records of Poa sterilis M. Bieberstein from China are probably based on this species. Examination of the type of P. major has shown that it was misplaced in P. subg. Poa and belongs here.