Poa ligulata Boiss., Voy. Bot.

7.Poa ligulataBoiss., Voy. Bot. Espagne 2: 659, t. 178 A. 1844. ≡ Poa concinna var. membranaceae Boiss., Elench. Pl. Nov. 89. 1838. Type protologue. Hab. in glareosis frigidis in summa Tejeda et i in Sierra Nevada loco Coral dicto. Type specimen: Boiss. El. No. 190 | in glareosis Sierra Tejeda, 6000 ', Jun 1837 (lectotype, designated by Á. M. Hernández Cardona 1978, p. 267, 358, top right specimen: G-BOIS [G 00418689]; isolectotype: G [G 00418691; G 00418691 a; G 00418690 ex herbier de Candolle]). Description. Perennials; tufts dense, vegetative shoots arising intravaginally from tunics of old sheaths, innermost basal sheaths, broad, slightly thickened, obscurely bulbous; prophylls retrorsely scabrous. Culms 3–19 (– 27) cm tall. Leaves mostly basal, culm leaves few; leaf blades mostly 1–3 (– 5) cm long, folded to V-shaped (– flat), moderately firm, prominently keeled, closely and strongly veined, surfaces smooth, margins scabrous but not thickened; ligules of basal leaves 2.5–5 mm long, strongly decurrent, hyaline to scarious and milky white; ligules of culm leaves to 10.5 mm long. Panicles 0.8–4 (– 6) cm long, contracted or slightly open; primary branches 0.5–1.5 cm long, moderately scabrous with 1–2 (– 3) branches at lower nodes. Spikelets 10–30 (– 60), crowded distally, not bulbiferous; glumes (1 –) 3 - veined; florets 3–6 (– 11); lemmas 2–2.9 mm long, keel and marginal veins, sericate to sericeous, between veins glabrous or sparsely sericate; callus glabrous; palea keels scabrous, or medially pilulose. Flowers bisexual; anthers 1 (3), 1–2 mm long. 2 n = 14. Clade code: Aa. Distribution and ecology. Europe – Spain, France (Pyrenees, rare); Africa (Algeria, Morocco). Dry stoney ground, mountain slopes and alpine, mostly on limestones and dolostones, (700 –) 740–3,200 m. Comments. Poa ligulata is nearly endemic to the mountains of Spain and northwestern Africa. Portal (2005) did not recognize it in France, but Scholz identified one collection from the French Pyrenees (Greuter and Raus 2005). The development of slightly thickened but not obviously bulbous, indurate inner basal sheaths in P. ligulata suggests an incipient stage in the evolution of bulbs. The species has been placed in P. sect. Alpinae (Ortega Olivencia 2020) or in P. sect. Bolbophorum s. l. (Edmondson 1980). The molecular data suggest it is related to P. badensis, which does not overlap with its range, on the one hand (ETS, ITS - ETS), or to P. bulbosa var. bulbosa samples from Spain and Turkey, on the other hand (plastid). It resolved near the base of th A and a - clades in both trees. Representative specimens. Spain. (Segarra s. n. CAN 10095752 *)