Poa balansae Soreng 2026, nom. nov.
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: 2.Poa balansaeSoreng nom. nov. ≡ Poa montana Balansa, Bull. Soc. Bot. France 21: 17. 1874 (non. Honck., 1782), nom. illeg. hom. Type. Turkey • Riza, Region alpine du Lazistan, an - dessus de Khabakhor, 30 Aug 1866, Balansa s. n. (lectotype, here designated: P [P 02357273] (four tufts, the left-hand one mixed with one tiny Festuca tuft, rjs image of the lectotype, DSC- 3405). Description. Perennials; hermaphroditic; tufted, with well-developed rhizomes, tufts mostly dense, isolated, small, 5–7 cm tall, pale green, often violaceous in part; tillers extra- and intravaginal, intravaginal; prophylls elongated to 1.5 cm, 2 - keeled, longitudinally split; bulbs absent. Culms 21–28 cm tall, erect, or slightly decumbent at base, slender, lower nodes 1 mm diam., with 1–2 nodes, 1–2 exposed, smooth at and below nodes. Leaf sheaths weakly compressed, keel without a wing, smooth throughout or the keels of basal leaves distally scabrous, glabrous, basal ones persistent, papery in age, basal most sheaths, bulb absent; flag-leaf sheaths 5–7 cm long, margins fused 42–52 % the length, (proximal margins briefly pubescent), shoots proximally cataphyllous and bladed; throats and collars often indistinctly wedge shaped and light brown, sometimes scantly scabrous; ligules 0.3–1 mm long, scarious, abaxially smooth or lightly scabrous, upper margin distinctly asperous to smooth, apices truncate to slightly rounded; ligules of sterile shoots ca. 0.3 mm, indistinctly decurrent; blades of upper culm 1.5–6 cm long, all approximately the same length, 1–1.5 mm wide (expanded), folded, margins inrolled, moderately thick, abaxially keels smooth or lightly scabrous, surfaces smooth, margins scabrous, adaxially, lightly scaberulous, apices narrowly prow-tipped; sterile shoot blades to 6 cm long, 1–1.5 mm wide, similar in form to those of the culm. Panicles 2–3.5 cm long, 1–2 cm wide, erect, loosely contracted, moderately congested with 15–55 spikelets; peduncles 11–15 cm long, proximal internode 0.8–1 cm long; branches 2 (– 3) at lowest nodes; primary branches 1–1.5 cm, with 4–10 spikelets per branch, crowded in the distal 1 / 2, ascending moderately slender, sub-terete to weakly angled, moderately scabrous mainly on the angles or all over; pedicels mostly less than 1 / 4 their spikelet in length. Spikelets 4–5 mm long, lanceolate, strongly compressed, violaceous; not bulbiferous; florets 2–3 (– 4); rachilla internodes 1–1.7 mm long, sparsely to densely scaberulous; glumes subequal, slightly thinner and shinier than lemmas, keels distally scabrous, sides smooth or distally and laterally lightly scaberulous, edges distally scaberulous, apices pointed; lower glumes 1.8–3 mm long, narrowly lanceolate, 1 (– 3) - veined; upper glumes 2.5–3.3 mm long, lanceolate, 3 - veined; callus glabrous; lemmas 3–3.7 mm long, 5 - veined, broadly lanceolate, 5 - veined, distally violaceous, strongly keeled, glabrous, keels and marginal veins scaberulous, between nerve densely muriculate, scaberulous distally, intermediate veins distinct to prominent, margins narrowly hyaline, edges distinctly scaberulous, apices acute, pointed; palea keels densely scabrous to scaberulous in distal 1 / 2–2 / 3, inter-keel area muriculate to sparsely scaberulous. Flowers bisexual; lodicules 0.5 mm long; anthers 1.5–1.8 (– 2) mm long. Caryopses 1.9 mm long, brown, strongly laterally compressed, shallow narrow sulcate, free from the palea, (hilum not seen). 2 n = unknown. Clade code: unknown. Distribution and ecology. Turkey. Pontic Mts, subalpine; in Turkey, 1,800 –2,000 m. Conservation status. Endemic, rare, known only from the Type, it needs further study. Comments. This taxon may be a hybrid between Poa longifolia s. l. or P. paryadrica s. s. and P. pratensis. The specimen is densely tufted with the aspect of low growing plants of P. pratensis subsp. angustifolia (L.) Dumort. with short and slight inflorescences and well-developed elongated rhizomes. However, the florets are glabrous. Only one sheet has been found in online searches. The P sheet has “ Poa montana Bal. ” in Balansa’s hand. It might be considered a holotype, but since the herbarium was not specified by Balansa (1874), and his collections are more widely distributed, a lectotype is designated. Representative specimen. Turkey. (Type).
Language: English
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7225818210
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