Tufted, shortly creeping perennial; culms 6-25cm high, usually decumbent at the base. Leaf-blades usually flat, sometimes folded, 1-7cm long, 2-3mm wide, flaccid, abruptly tapering to a rather stout tip, scabrid on the margins; ligule blunt, 1-1.5mm long. Panicle pyramidal, 2-3cm long, loose; branches solitary or in pairs, the lower widely spreading, smooth. Spikelets 4-6-flowered, ovate, 3.5-5mm long, often suffused with purple; glumes unequal, the lower oblong, 1.5-1.7 mm long, 1-nerved, the upper elliptic, 2-2.5mm long, 3-nerved; lemmas elliptic or oblong-ovate in side-view, 2.5-3.5mm long, obtuse, ciliate on the keel and marginal nerves, without any wool at the base; palea shorter than the lemma, ciliate all along the keels; anthers (1.2-)1.6-2(-2.5)mm long.

Fl. & Fr. Per.: May–July.

Type: Germany, Mielichhofer..

Distribution: Pakistan (N.W.F.P., Gilgit & Kashmir); Europe eastwards to the Himalayas and the USSR.

Poa supine is very similar to Poa annua but differs in its longer anthers and by having the spikelets crowded towards the tips of the branches. Frohner (l.c.) stated that Asiatic plants are distinct from European Poa supine and proposed to accommodate them in a new species, Poa ustulata Frohner. However, since the characters used to distinguish them not only overlap considerably, but are largely of a highly cryptic nature, no attempt has been made to test the distinction in our material. If Frohner is to be followed, then apparently all the specimens cited above should be referred to Poa ustulata.

1700–4300m.