Poa bulbosa subsp. bulbosa var. cabiana Soreng 2026, var. nov.

3.1. 2Poa bulbosa subsp. bulbosa var. cabianaSoreng var. nov. Fig. 5 (right-hand plant in both photos) Type. Turkey • Mersin, Karadiken Daği, ca. 16 km NNE of Anamur on road 33-62 to Ermenek, steep pine forested hills, W to SW exp. along roadside on steep unstable banks and packed gravel shoulders, limestone, 758 m, 36.2092 ° N, 32.9036 ° E, 24 Apr 2015, Soreng, R. J. et Cabi, E. 9101 (holotype: US- 3770800; isotypes: CAN!, NAKU!). Description. Perennials; hermaphroditic; tufted, delicate, without rhizomes or stolons, tufts dense, compact, crowded; green, usually violaceous in part; tillers distinctly bulbous at the base, intravaginal; prophyll keels medially retrorsely or bidirectionally scabrous; bulbs small, onion shaped. Culms 20–40 cm tall, erect or geniculately ascending, smooth, glabrous, lustrous, slender (to 1 mm diam.), smooth, glabrous, 0–2 nodes exerted, nodes smooth. Leaves mostly basal, few culms; leaf sheaths (lower) weakly compressed, strongly imbricated at base, smooth, lustrous, inner basal-most sheaths thickened, indurate at the base for 2–6 (– 10) mm long, several veined; basal-most sheaths, the outermost sheaths papery to subcoriaceous, strongly veined (veins narrow), smooth, glabrous, persisting as a tunic or soon deteriorating, smooth glabrous; flag-leaf sheath 6–10 cm long, margins fused ca 25 % the length, smooth, glabrous; throats and collars smooth, glabrous; ligules 3.5–5 mm long, scarious, watery-white, apices acute to acuminate, entire or shallowly dentate, decurrent, of sterile shoots 1–3 mm long; blades of culm 1–3 (– 4) cm long, to 1 mm wide, gradually reduced upward in length, flat or folded, abaxially proximally smooth along the keel, surfaces smooth, margins scabrous, apices narrowly prow-tipped; sterile shoot blades 2–6 cm long, 0.5–0.8 mm wide, filiform, soon withering. Panicle 2–5 cm long (mostly 3–4 cm long), oblong, compact, contracted [sometimes loose at flowering], crowded, with mostly 70 to 100 + spikelets; peduncles well exerted at maturity, smooth; axis with 3–5 branches at the lowest nodes; primary branches 0.8–2.5 cm long, with 5–10 (– 15) spikelets in the distal 1 / 3–1 / 2, ascending, slender, terete, moderately scabrous; lateral pedicels mostly <1 mm long, scabrous. Spikelets 2.5–4 mm long, ovate-oblong, laterally compressed, usually strongly violaceous; not bulbiferous, florets 3–7, normal; rachilla internodes mostly <0.5 mm long, short; glumes subequal, lacking a glaucus blush, the upper broader than the lower, distinctly keeled, keels scabrous, sides smooth or sparsely scaberulous distally, margins sparsely scaberulous, apices sharply acute; lower glumes 1.5–2.2 mm long, 1 (– 3) - veined, narrowly lanceolate; upper glumes 2–2.7 mm long, 3 - veined, lanceolate; callus webbed (at least on some proximal lemmas within some spikelets), with 1 to several hairs, rarely all glabrous; lemmas 2–3 mm, 3 - veined, ovate, green, violaceous in part, a bit lustrous, distinctly keeled, keels and marginal veins pectinate-ciliate to 4 / 5, lateral veins to 1 / 2, the length, hairs to 1 mm long, single file, tips round, between keels glabrous or with sparse long hairs on upper florets, intermediate veins obscure; apices acutely pointed; palea keels finely scabrous, intercostal zone thin, obscurely muriculate, smooth, glabrous. Flowers bisexual; anthers (0.8) 1–1.4 mm long. Caryopses ca. 1 mm long, broadly sulcate, greenish, hard, adherent to the palea; hilum 0.2 mm long, punctiform. 2 n = unknown. Clade code: unknown. Distribution and ecology. Turkey. Semiarid habitats, steppe and forest openings, from low to mid-elevations. Likely also in adjacent Lebanon and Syria; in Turkey, 450– 950 m. Conservation status. None. Needs further study. Comments. Soreng and Cabi collected a series of delicate specimens from south-central Turkey that were initially, tentatively, identified as P. hackelii Post or P. bulbosa var. hackelii Tzvelev. However, after examining the Type material of Post’s species, establishing a lectotype (here), and identifying it as P. bulbosa var. bulbosa, the new material seems best placed as a new variety in P. bulbosa. Valdés and Scholz (Euro + Med PlantBase, accessed February 2026) treated Poa hackelii Post as the correct name for “ Poa delicatula Tzvelev and P. bulbosa subsp. delicatula (Tzvelev) Tzvelev ”, but we rule that out based on the morphology of the lectotype material (see P. hackelii lectotype above under var. bulbosa). The lectotype designated for P. hackelii is a more robust plant, taking that name out of contention. Furthermore, P. delicatula Schrad. (lectotype by Tzvelev and Probatova 2019) is a much older name and the same taxon as P. delicatula Wilhelms ex Tzvelev (nom. illeg. hom.) (see discussion by Soreng and Tasenkevich 2025). All Type material was derived from Wilhelms’ gathering of seed and specimens from the Caucasus. We collected series of plants across southern Turkey (Adıyaman, Gaziantep) and Thrace (Edirne) that match the diagnosis and description of florets with callus hairs sparse to absent. These form small, dense, delicate tufts, with early-wilting leaf blades, smooth to moderately scabrous panicle branches, scant callus hairs, and pectinate-ciliate lemma keels and marginal veins (glabrous between veins). The lower glumes are narrower and 1 - veined and lack a glaucous blush. Such plants are more delicate and are separable from P. bulbosa var. bulbosa and var. vivipara from the same sites. Whether these populations represent smaller forms of P. bulbosa or possibly the separate species, P. delicatula, or variation from interspecific introgression requires further study. Fig. 5 shows the habits and inflorescences of P. bulbosa var. bulbosa (Soreng et Cabi 9102) and var. cabiana (9101) from adjacent stands at the Type locality. Representative specimens. Turkey. Adıyaman (Soreng et Cabi 9168 - a, 9172, 9174 - a). Edirne (Soreng et al 9260). Gaziantep (Soreng et Cabi 9139, 9140 - a, 9149, 9166). Mersin (Type). Sivas (Stainton 8460 US).