草地早熟禾(原亚种) cao di zao shu he (yuan ya zhong)

Poa angustiglumis Roshevitz; P. pratensis [unranked] anceps Gaudin; P. pratensis var. anceps (Gaudin) Grisebach; P. viridula Palibin.

Plants green or pale green, often forming turf, strongly rhizomatous; shoots extra- and intravaginal. Culms (15–)20–80(–120) cm, few to several per tuft, erect, nodes 2–4. Leaf sheaths smooth or retrorsely scabrid, lower ones longer than internodes, usually distinctly longer than blade, uppermost to 20 cm; blades flat, moderately papery to thickly papery, 2–10 cm × 2–4(–5) mm, surfaces smooth or adaxial surface and margins sparsely scabrid, abaxially glabrous or less often sparsely pubescent, of tillers flat and folded or all flat with margins inrolled or not, papery to thickly papery, to 45 cm × 1–4(–5) mm; ligules 1–4(–5) mm, abaxially scabrid. Panicle loosely contracted to open, oblong to broadly pyramidal, 5–20(–25) × 3–5(–10) cm; branches spreading, straight or flexuous and slightly lax, 3–7(–9) per node, smooth or scabrid, longest 5–10 cm with 3–10(–18) spikelets in distal 1/2. Spikelets ovate, frequently purple tinged, 4–7(–9) mm, florets 3–5(–8); glumes ovate to lanceolate (narrowly lanceolate), apex acute to acuminate, keel distally scabrid, lower glume 1.5–3(–4) mm, 1- or 3-veined, upper glume 2–3(–5) mm, 3-veined; lemmas ovate to lanceolate 2.5–4(–5) mm, apex slightly obtuse to acute, keel villous for 3/4 of length, marginal veins for 1/2 length, intermediate veins glabrous; palea smooth or minutely bumpy, rarely with a few hooks between keels, keels scabrid. Anthers (1.2–)1.5–2.2(–2.8) mm. Fl. May–Jun, fr. Jul–Sep. 2n = 28, 35, 42, 49, 50, 52, 56, 58, 63, 64, 66, 70, 77, 84, 91, 98, 105, 112, 119, 126, 133, 140.

Moist meadows, sandy places, grassy slopes; 500–4000 m. Anhui, Gansu, Guizhou, Hebei, Heilongjiang, Henan, Hubei, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Jilin, Liaoning, Nei Mongol, Qinghai, Shaanxi, Shandong, Shanxi, Sichuan, Xinjiang, Xizang, Yunnan [Afghanistan, Bhutan, India, Indonesia, Japan, Kazakhstan, Korea, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, New Guinea, Pakistan, Russia (Far East, Siberia), Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan; Africa, SW Asia, Australia, Europe, North America, Pacific Islands, South America].

The race is widely cultivated for forage, soil stabilization, and lawns. It is probably also native to China. Cultivated, soft-leaved plants are sometimes called subsp. irrigata (Lindman) H. Lindberg, but such cultivated plants are not readily classified. Poa pratensis subsp. irrigata was reported from Xinjiang in FRPS (9(2): 194. 2002, as P. irrigata Lindman), but, while it is potentially present there, no authentic material has been seen by us. It was mapped for the Russian Far East only from the Commander Isles by Probatova (in Tzvelev, Sosud. Rast. Sovetsk. Dal'nego Vostoka 1: 279. 1985).