Atropis (Trinius) Ruprecht ex Grisebach, nom. rej.; Poa sect. Atropis Trinius.

Perennial herbs, tufted. Culms erect. Leaf sheaths spread along culms or clustered at base, glabrous; leaf blades linear, often convolute or conduplicate, scabrid or smooth; ligule membranous. Inflorescence a spreading or contracted panicle. Spikelets slightly compressed or cylindrical, disarticulating above glumes and between florets; florets 2–8, imbricate; glumes lanceolate to broadly ovate, unequal, shorter than first floret, papery, apex often scarious, obtuse or acuminate; lower glume small, 1(–3)-veined, upper glume 3-veined; lemmas oblong, lanceolate or ovate, papery, 5-veined, back rounded or slightly keeled, glabrous or pubescent on lower veins, intervein spaces, and base, apex obtuse or slightly acuminate, membranous, ciliate or irregularly finely toothed; palea as long as or slightly shorter than lemma; lodicules 2, often 2-lobed; stamens 3, small. Caryopsis small, narrowly ellipsoid, not sulcate, free from palea and lemma. x = 7.

About 200 species: temperate and arctic regions of both hemispheres, usually along shores of saline lakes, also on mountains in the tropics; 50 species (14 endemic) in China.

(Authors: Liu Liang (刘亮), Zhu Guanghua (朱光华); Nikolai N. Tzvelev)