Poa rajbhandarii Noltie

Poa rajbhandarii includes P. himalayana sensu Bor. Poa himalayana s.s. has panicles more lax and palea keels medially pilulose. Poa rajbhandarii is similar to P. khasiana, but differs in the lower glume being straighter and shorter, less than half the length of the first lemma.

Annuals or short-lived perennials, loosely tufted, weakly stoloniferous. Culms 1 to several, erect or geniculate ascending, 16–45 cm tall, 0.5–1 mm in diam., smooth or sparsely retrorse scabrid below lower nodes, glabrous, nodes 2 or 3, 1 or 2 exserted. Leaf sheaths smooth or sparsely scabrid near the collars, glabrous, 6–13 cm, slightly longer than blade, uppermost closed for 3/5 of length; blades flat, thin, 5–18 cm × 1–2.5 mm, abaxially nearly smooth to scabrid, adaxially and margins densely scabrid, apex slender prow-tipped; ligule 0.4–1.5(–2.3) mm, abaxially scabrid or puberulent, truncate to obtuse, collar margins often ciliate. Panicle open, lax, 8–18 × 3–8 cm, longest internodes 2.5–4 cm; branches ascending to spreading, flexuous, 1–4 per node, slender, scabrid throughout, longest 3–7 cm with 3–8 spikelets in distal 1/3. Spikelets narrowly elliptic, 3.7–5.2 mm, florets (1–)2–3(–4); vivipary absent; rachilla internodes to 1–1.5 mm, smooth, glabrous; glumes distinctly unequal, slender, acuminate, distinctly shorter than first lemma, keels scabrid, upper surface and edges smooth or scabrid, lower glume, subulate to wedge-shaped, 1.5–2.4 mm, straight or only slightly convexed, 1-veined, upper glume 2.2–3.3 mm, 3-veined; lemmas oblong to elliptic, very thinly to thinly papery, (2.8–)3.3–4.2 mm, ca. 5 × as long as wide, apex slightly acuminate, margins finely scabrid along edge, keel pilulose to shortly villous for 1/3–1/2 of length, marginal veins to 1/3, intermediate veins faint to prominent, areas between veins smooth or minutely bumpy over some or most of length, glabrous; callus webbed; palea distinctly shorter than lemma, smooth, glabrous between keels, keels scabrid, glabrous. Anthers 0.6–1 mm. Fl. and fr. May–Jul.

SC and SE Xizang, NW Yunnan [Bhutan, India (Assam, Sikkim), Nepal].

Alpine grassy places; 2700–4000 m.