Poa chinensis Linnaeus, Sp. Pl. 1: 69. 1753.

Annual or sometimes perennial. Culms erect, geniculate or decumbent and rooting from nodes, 30–100 cm tall, smooth and glabrous. Leaf sheaths glabrous; leaf blades flat or slightly involute, 5–25 × 0.2–0.9 cm, glabrous, scabrid on both surfaces or abaxial surface smooth, apex acuminate; ligule membranous, 1–5 mm. Inflorescence 10–50 cm; racemes numerous, unilateral, to 10 cm, slender, flexuose, laxly ascending, rachis scabrid, spikelets usually imbricate. Spikelets purplish or brownish green, narrowly elliptic-oblong, laterally compressed, 2–4 mm, florets 3–7; glumes scabrid along keels and sometimes laterally; lower glume lanceolate, 1–1.5 mm, acute; upper glume elliptic-oblong, 1.2–2 mm, obtuse; lemmas elliptic-oblong, keeled, lowest ca. 1.5 mm, shortly appressed-hairy along lower margins and on either side of midvein, obtuse or minutely emarginate; palea minutely hispid on keels, appressed hairy on back and flaps. Anthers ca. 0.5 mm. Caryopsis oblong, 0.7–0.9 mm, plano-convex. Fl. and fr. Aug–Oct. 2n = 40.

This species is a forage grass.

Moist places; 200–1000 m. Anhui, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hainan, Henan, Hubei,Hunan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Shaanxi, Shandong, Sichuan, Taiwan, Yunnan, Zhejiang [Bhutan, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam; Africa].