Poa bactriana Roshev., Bot. Mater. Gerb. Glavn. Bot. Sada R. S. F. S. R.

2.Poa bactrianaRoshev., Bot. Mater. Gerb. Glavn. Bot. Sada R. S. F. S. R. 4: 93. 1923. Type. Uzbekistan or Tajikistan • Gissar, Pyanjkhan, 7800 ft, southern slope, along the Gzigdya River, 8 Jul 1896, V. Lipsky 4825. (lectotype, designated by Tzvelev 1976, p. 450: LE [LE 01223899, rjs IMG _ 1967. jpg]; isolectotypes: K [K 000789567], LE 01223891 [image!], LE 01223897 [image!]. Description. Perennials; tufted, without rhizomes or stolons, with bulbs, branching intravaginal; prophyll keels bidirectionally to mostly antrorsely scabrous; bulbs with glabrous, indurate and thickened inner sheaths 0.3–1 cm long. Culms 4–60 cm tall. Leaves mostly basal, sometimes with several well-developed culm leaves; leaf-blades soft; ligules of culm leaves to 4 mm long; ligules of sterile shoots 0.7–1.5 mm long. Panicles contracted or slightly loose; branches smooth or scabrous. Spikelets normal or bulbiferous; lower glumes 1 - veined; callus glabrous; lemmas 2–3.2 mm long, rather thin, glabrous in normal and bulbiferous spikelets (subsp. nevskii with sparse, short hairs). Distribution and ecology. Afghanistan, China (SW Xinjiang?, W Xizang?), Iran, Kazakhstan (S), Kyrgyz Republic (S), Pakistan (N), Tajikistan, Turkmenistan (E), Uzbekistan (E), India (NW), Turkey (E). Steppe to alpine. Conservation status. None. Comments. Tzvelev (1976) recognized four Poa bactriana subspecies: bactriana, drobovii, glabriflora, and zaprjagajevii from Soviet and adjacent Central Asia, these originally and subsequently sometimes treated as species (Bor 1970; Čzerepanov 1981, 1995). Tzvelev recorded some taxon ranges extending into Iran (all but subsp. drobovii), Afghanistan, to northwestern Himalayas. There are no known chromosome number reports for the species or infraspecies. GBIF (2026, accessed 21 Sep. 2026) reported 198 specimen records, mostly from Tajikistan, for P. bactriana s. l. From the material reviewed for the present study, delimiting the taxa as species is not clearcut, but specimens can be roughly sorted by morphology corresponding to elevational and ecological gradients. Reports from China (Zhu et al. 2006; Chinese Virtual Herbarium, 2026, accessed 21 Sep. 2026) need to be verified. More study is needed, as noted by Dickoré (1995). A previous lectotype, designated by Bor (1970, p. 26), from Tajikistan, “ In declivibus et angustis montium, 4,000 –11,000 ft, Samarkand, 1892 ” “ Komarov 1892, et al., LE ”, is here rejected. This specimen was not among the 10 original gatherings (syntypes) cited by Roshevitz (1923). Moreover, this might not represent a single sheet. No sheet matching this is among those imaged at LE. One V. L. Komarov syntype, labeled as “ Flora Seravschanica, Kara-Kul, Alt. 8000–9000 pd., 30 VII 1892 ” [LE 01265567, image!], presents a heterogenous mix of three taxa here recognized, P. bactriana var. bactriana (left-hand specimen), P. bactriana var. glabriflora (middle 2 specimens), and P. bactriana var. tzveleviana (the bulbiferous specimen). This sheet was annotated by Roshevitz in 1931 as Poa glabriflora Roshev. (but there is a penciled note, “ Poa bactriana ”, on the left-hand plant). A second V. L. Komarov syntype [LE 01265566, image!], “ ad trajectum Mura, 9000 ft, 27 VI 1892 ”, is all var. glabriflora.