Poa formosae Ohwi.

Annuals or short-lived perennials, loosely tufted, weakly stoloniferous. Culms 1 to several, clambering to erect with base geniculate, 30–70 cm tall, 0.5–1.5 mm in diam., smooth to retrorsely scabrid or hispidulous below nodes, nodes 3 or 4, 1–3 exserted. Leaf sheaths finely retrorsely scabrid to strigulose near the collars, lower ones often tinged with purple, 6–15 cm, 1.4–4 × as long as blade, uppermost closed for 2/5–1/2 of length; blades flat, thin, 3–10 cm × 1.5–3 mm, abaxially smooth, margins smooth or finely scabrid, adaxially scabrid, apex slender prow-tipped; ligule 0.8–1(–1.5) mm, abaxially scabrid or pilulose, apex truncate or obtuse, rounded, collar margins usually shortly ciliate or strigulose. Panicle open, narrow, 7–21 × 2–5 cm, longest internodes 3–6 cm; branches ascending to spreading or reflexed, flexuous, 2–4 per node, slender, proximally smooth to scabrid, distally scabrid, angled, longest 3–6 cm with 2–8 spikelets in distal 1/3–1/2. Spikelets ovate to oblong, pale green, 4–6 mm, florets 3–4(–5); vivipary absent; rachilla internodes 0.7–1.2 mm, smooth, glabrous; glumes unequal, slender, apex acuminate, upper keel scabrid, upper surfaces and edges smooth to scabrid, lower glume 1.8–3.2 mm, narrowly lanceolate, slightly convex to often sickle-shaped, 1-veined, upper glume 2.7–3.7 mm, 3-veined; lemmas lanceolate to oblong, thinly papery to papery, 3.2–4.4 mm, ca. 5 × as long as wide, apex acute to acuminate, sparsely scabrid along edge, keel shortly villous to pilulose for 2/3 of length, marginal veins to 1/2, intermediate veins prominent, areas between veins minutely bumpy, glabrous; callus densely webbed; palea distinctly shorter than lemma, smooth, glabrous, or pilulose between keels, keels scabrid throughout or infrequently medially shortly ciliate to pilulose, margins minutely bumpy and then membranous-papery. Anthers 0.6–1 mm. Fl. and fr. Jul–Sep. 2n = 28.

Poa khasiana has firmer lemmas than most other taxa in the complex except P. rajbhandarii, but the lower glumes are relatively long in comparison to the first lemma, and are more sickle-shaped than in that species. A report from India (Sikkim) by Rajbhandari (Bull. Univ. Mus. Univ. Tokyo 34: 214. 1991) was rejected by Noltie (Fl. Bhutan 3(2): 572. 2000).

Alpine scattered forests, grassy places among thickets on slopes, roadsides, Fargesia thickets; 300–4000 m. Guizhou, W Sichuan, Taiwan, SE Xizang, NW Yunnan [India (Khasi Hills), Myanmar].