Poa pratensis Linnaeus subsp. colpodea (Th. Fries) Tzvelev, 1972

Desjardins, Émilie, Lai, Sandra, Payette, Serge, Dubé, Martin, Sokoloff, Paul C., St-Louis, Annie, Poulin, Marie-Pier, Legros, Jade, Sirois, Luc, Vézina, François, Tam, Andrew & Berteaux, Dominique, 2021, Survey of the vascular plants of Alert (Ellesmere Island, Canada), a polar desert at the northern tip of the Americas, Check List 17 (1), pp. 181-225 : 209

Poa pratensis Linnaeus subsp. colpodea (Th. Fries) Tzvelev

Figures 11I

Materials examined. CANADA – Nunavut • Ellesmere Island, CFS Alert ; 82°28′ N, 062°06′ W; 117 m a.s.l.; 18 Aug. 2019; habitat: around an Arctic fox den; QFA0635518 • same locality; 82°28′16″N, 062°06′24″W; 122 m a.s.l.; 18 Jul. 2019; habitat: around a bird perching site; QFA0635533 .

Identification. Plants 7.5–16.5 cm high; herbaceous; not caespitose. Fibrous roots and rhizomes present. Stems 5.5–14.0 cm long; erect; glabrous. Leaves basal and cauline. Sheath margins glabrous. Ligules 0.8–1.3 mm long. Basal leaf blades 17–46 mm long, 0.8–1.1 mm wide; linear; folded or rolled in bud; abaxial and adaxial surfaces both glabrous; margins glabrous. Flag leaf blades 8.5– 9.5 mm long, 0.3–0.6 mm wide. Inflorescence a diffuse or dense panicle, with bulbils allowing vegetative reproduction; 22.0– 33.5 mm long. Branches at lowest inflores- cence node 2 or 3; 0.9–2.8 mm long. Pedicels glabrous. Spikelets 4–9 mm long, 1.5–2.3 mm wide. Florets per spikelet 1–3. First glumes 2.3–3.0 mm long; ovate; surface glabrous; margins glabrous; apices acute or acuminate. Second glumes 2.0– 2.9 mm long (shorter than, or almost as long as, the lowest lemma); ovate or lanceolate; veins 3; surface glabrous and scabrous on the midvein (midvein sometimes glabrous); margins glabrous; apices acute or acuminate. Lemmas 2.1–3.7 mm long, 0.6–1.7 mm wide; lanceolate; keeled; veins 5; surface dull, glabrous proximally, hairy on the veins, and scabrous apically; apices acute and glabrous; awnless. Palea present or absent; 1.6–1.8 mm long; veins scabrous (hairs absent between the veins). Rachilla between first and second lemmas 0.2–0.3 mm long. Bulbils 3.4–8.9 mm long. Androecium and gynoecium absent.

Characteristics allowing to distinguish P. pratensis subsp. colpodea from the other Poa species present on Ellesmere Island can be found under P. abbreviata subsp. abbreviata and P. arctica subsp. arctica .