Poa iridifolia Hauman

Echeverría, María L., Alonso, Sara I. & Comparatore, Viviana M., 2017, Survey of the vascular plants of Sierra Chica, the untouched area of the Paititi Natural Reserve (southeastern Tandilia mountain range, Buenos Aires province, Argentina), Check List 13 (6), pp. 1003-1036 : 1020

Poa iridifolia Hauman

Figure 18

Poa iridifolia Hauman (1917) : 407 — Cabrera (1970): 115; Zuloaga et

al. (2012b): 311; Flora Argentina (2017); Tropicos (2017).

Poa lanigera Nees var. tandilensis Hackel (1911) : 152.

Cryptophytes, endemic to mountain ranges of Buenos Aires province. Vulnerable for reasons unknown ( Delucchi 2006).

Characteristics. Dioecious, perennial, caespitose species, to 1 m tall, with erect, 1- or 2-node culms. Leaves parallel-veined, conduplicate, coriaceous, glaucous to glaucous-green, with rough margins and midribs. Basal innovations flabellate, leaf-sheaths compressed. Leaves plane, with a hooded apex, to 50 cm long; ligule membranous. Inflorescence: a compact panicle, to 20 cm long; female and male florets similar, multiflorous, pubescent, 3.5–6 mm long. Fruit: a fusiform caryopsis.

Comments. This is an infrequent species in the study area. It grows in shallow soils and in rock cracks on slopes and summits. It can be differentiated from other Poa species of the area by its caespitose, glaucouse foliage and by its conduplicate leaves with flabellate basal innovations, as in several Iris species.

Superorder Rosanae