Aira elegantissima Schur, Verh. Mitth. Siebenburg.

Cho, Yanghoon & Lee, Jonghwan Kim and Byoungyoon, 2017, Vascular plants of Poaceae (II) new to Korea: Holcus mollis L. and Aira elegantissima Schur, Journal of Species Research 6 (2), pp. 171-176 : 174-175

2. Aira elegantissima Schur, Verh. Mitth. Siebenburg.

Vereins Naturwiss. Hermannstadt 4: 85. 1853.

Type Locality: Rumania

Korean name: Gin-eun- teol-sae (ỨênjNj)

Annual; caespitose. Culms erect or geniculately ascending, slender; 5-40 cm long, 0.3 mm in diameter, internodes glabrous. Leaves: sheath submembranous, distinctly ribbed, ribs minutely scabrid almost to base; ligule eciliately membranous, 1.5-4 mm long, acute, ta- pered, minutely denticulate, abaxial surface with scabrid sparsely distributed; blade filiform, flat or convolute, 2-4 cm long, 0.5-1 mm wide, abaxial surface glabrous or scaberulous on ribs, adaxial surface with minute hairs, margins minutely scabrid, apex subacute to otuse. Panicle very delicate loose, open, ovate, effuse, 4-10 cm long, 2-5 cm wide, branched dichotomously; branches capil- lary, gradually thickening to the apices, terete, smooth. Spikelets solitary, oblong, laterally compressed, 1.5-2.5 mm long, breaking up at maturity, disarticulating below each fertile floret, silvery green; pedicels filiform, terete, longer than spikelets, 5-13 mm long, tip pyriform; rhachilla minute, glabrous with internodes suppressed be- tween florets; glumes subequal, exceeding florets, per- sistent, shining; lower glume ovate, 1.5-2.5 mm long, as long as upper glume, membranous, 1-keeled, 1-veined with scaberulous, apex acute; upper glume ovate, 1.5-2.5 mm long, 1.5 times longer than adjacent fertile lemma, membranous, 1-keeled, 1-veined with scaberulous, apex acute. Floret all alike, or with the lowest dissimilar; fertile lemma thicker than glume, ovate, laterally compresed, 1.2-1.5 mm long, covering most of palea, apex dentate, 2-fid, cartilaginous or firmly membranous, 5-veined, lateral veins obscure, awn arising 0.3-0.4 way up back of lemma, geniculate, 1.5-2 mm long, exerted from spikelet. Anthers 3; 0.3-0.5 mm long. Ovary glabrous. Caryopsis ca. 1 × 0.3 mm.

Habitats. Sunny, dry waste areas.

Distribution. Europe, Mediterranean, western Asia.

Specimens examined. Bieungdo-dong, Gunsan-si , Jeollabuk-do N 35°56 ʹ 38.25 ʺ E 126°32 ʹ 15.11 ʺ, 10 Jun. 2015. J. H . Kim and Cho Y. H . 152058 (2 sheets, KB).

Aira , a genus of Poaceae , is native to Europe, the Mediterranean and western Asia including 10 species ( Mabberley, 1997; Clayton et al., 2016). Some species of the genus are frequently introduced and widespread as weeds outside of their native ranges, but were not thought to be troublesome environmentally. In North America, two species of the genus, A. caryophyllea and A. praecox were introduced from southern Europe and North Africa and grow in mesic, open habitats in disturbed areas such as the edge of roads, railways, and airports or woodland ( Wipff, 2007). A. caryophyllea and A. elegans were reported to inhabit sunny and dry waste areas in Japan ( Osada, 1989), and the former is known to be vegetated in Korea ( Lee et al., 2011; Cho et al., 2016). In the current paper, we reported the latter species also inhabits Korea by discovering the domestic locality around a southwestern port of Gunsan-si. However, A. elegans has a nomenclature problem which was first suggested by Tutin (1980). He accepted Aira elegantissima Schur as the correct name for this taxon and treated A. capillaris Host (non Savi) and A. elegans Willd. ex Gaudin as illegitimate names without any elaboration. Later, the authorship of the species was discussed in detail by Kartesz and Gandhi (1990). While reviewing Gaudin’s (1811) work, they found the name of A. elegans Willd. was incorrect because this taxon name was includ- ed under Aira caryophyllea without any accepted number as a legitimate name. Therefore, Aira elegantissima should be an accepted name for this taxon.