Poa subg. Pseudopoa (K. Koch) Stapf in J. D. Hooker, Fl. Brit. India 7(22): 337. 1897 [1896].

Gillespie, Lynn J., Soreng, Robert John, Cabi, Evren & Amiri, Neda, 2018, Phylogeny and taxonomic synopsis of Poa subgenus Pseudopoa (including Eremopoa and Lindbergella) (Poaceae, Poeae, Poinae), PhytoKeys 111, pp. 69-102 : 77-78

Poa subg. Pseudopoa (K. Koch) Stapf in J. D. Hooker, Fl. Brit. India 7(22): 337. 1897 [1896].

Festuca [unranked] Pseudopoa K. Koch, Linnaea 21(1[4]): 409. 1848. Poa sect. Pseudopoa (K. Koch) Hack., Nat. Pflanzenfam. 2(2): 73. 1887. Eremopoa Roshev., Fl. URSS 2: 429, 756. 1934. Type. Poa persica Trin. ≡ Festuca persica (Trin.) K. Koch.

Lindbergia Bor, Svensk Bot. Tidskr. 62: 467, 1968 (nom. illeg. hom., non Kindb., 1897). Lindbergella Bor, Svensk Bot. Tidskr. 63: 368. 1969. Type. Poa sintenisii H. Lindb. ≡ Lindbergella sintenisii (H. Lindb.) Bor.

Emended diagnosis.

Like species of other Poa subgenera, but annual ( P. speluncarum a weak stooling perennial) and differing from other annual species of Poa by combination of sheath margins fused only near the base (basal sheaths fused to 16%, top sheath 4-12% [to 50% in P. speluncarum ]), panicle branches scabrous along angles ( P. sintenisii smooth), arranged in whorl-like groups of 5 to 27 per node (sometimes fewer in P. diaphora and P. sintenisii ), sometimes the lower whorls of branches naked or with only a few sterile spikelets, flowers bisexual, glumes short (lower glume 2/7-2/3 (-3/4) the first lemma in length), 1-veined (3-veined in P. sintenisii ), apex sharply pointed, sometimes apiculate, rachilla internodes exposed, scaberulous, callus glabrous (or with a short crown of hairs in P. sintenisii ), lemmas membranous to subchartaceous ( P. sintenisii chartaceous), 3-5 veined, the intermediate veins faint when present, laterally compressed, but the keel not pronounced, glabrous or keel and marginal veins short sericeous (also sericeous between the veins in P. sintenisii ), but keel scabrous distal to the hairs.

Distribution.

Southwest Asia from Israel, Lebanon, Cyprus and Turkey eastwards through Transcaucasia, Iran, central Asia to western China and northwest India. Sporadic elsewhere, possibly adventive on Egypt’s North African coast but native east of the Red Sea, adventive in Europe and Canada.

Notes.

A subgenus of seven species with several infraspecies, distributed mainly in semi-arid midlands to uplands (usually 300 m plus) to alpine, with winter spring / summer drought precipitation pattern, often along trails and roads, cultivated fields and pastures, around puddles, shallow springs, swales and vernal pools, snow beds, in pine/oak forests to open grasslands and deserts, also in shallow caves, in shallow sandy or stony soils or screes of igneous or metamorphic rocks of igneous or sedimentary origin, including pumice, lava, serpentine, shale, sandstone, limestone and marble.

Key to Poa subgen. Pseudopoa taxa and other annual species of Poa in the coincident geographic region

Plants annual (infrequently perennial or perenniating); anthers mostly 0.2-1 mm (to 1.7 mm in the weak stemmed, stooling perennial P. speluncarum , to 2.8 mm in the annual species Poa persica ).