Poa bulbosa L.
bulbous poa
Tightly packed, swollen-based perennial tufts to c. 10 cm; branching intravaginal; leaf-blades persistent. Leaf-sheath cream, membranous, glabrous, later shredding into fibres; inner basal sheaths thick, swollen and hard at base; sheaths of cauline leaves light green, some purplish. Ligule 0.5-2.5 mm, entire, tapered, apically glabrous or very sparingly ciliate, abaxially glabrous. Leaf-blade 2.5-5 cm long, rather stiff, folded, grey-green, glabrous; margins minutely scabrid, midrib also scabrid near abruptly pointed tip. Culm 5-10 cm, internodes glabrous. Panicle 2-4 cm, contracted, ± oblong, with densely packed spikelets; rachis smooth, branches few, ± erect, sparsely scabrid. Spikelets 3-3.5 mm, 2-3-flowered, light green to purplish. Glumes ± equal, 2-3 mm, ovate, acute, keel distinct, green, scabrid; lower l-nerved, upper 3-nerved; margins membranous, wide, purplish. Lemma c. 3 mm, 5-nerved, ovate, acute, membranous, glabrous, nerves densely ciliate on lower ½, midnerve scabrid above hairs. Palea c. 2.5 mm, keels minutely ciliate, interkeel glabrous. Callus with tuft of tangled hairs. Rachilla c. 0.5 mm, glabrous; prolongation much shorter. Lodicules c. 0.4 mm. Anthers 1-1.5 mm. Caryopsis not seen.
S.: Central Otago (near Alexandra). Roadside.
Naturalised from Europe.
No specimens have been found to support the record of Kirk, T. W. Ann. Rep. Dept Agric. 13: 332 (1905) from Pleasant Point. Poa bulbosa was collected from the cemetery at Alexandra in 1966 and became well established in the vicinity (A. J. Healy, in litt.).
The proliferous form, Poa bulbosa var. vivipara Koeler, in which the spikelet is replaced above the glumes by a miniature shoot, has also been collected near Alexandra.
