Relatives

Agropyron ponticum Nevski - Pontic Wheatgrass.

Synonyms:

Agropyron cristatum subsp. ponticum (Nevski) Tzvel., A.karadaghense Kotov

Taxonomic position.

Family Poaceae Benth. genus Agropyron Gaertn.

Morphology and biology.

Perennial grass. Plant glaucous-green, large-cespitose. Stems 15-40 cm tall, thickened at base, pubescent in and under nodes, sometimes also under spike, with numerous, mainly short sterile shoots. Leaves of sterile shoots densely convolute, rigid, more or less bristly hairy beneath, less often glabrous, often curved, 2-4 cm long and up to 2 mm wide; sheaths hairy or glabrous. Spikes dense, 1.7-3 cm long, 7-13 mm wide, distinctly narrowed toward apex and base, mainly not pectinate, with overlapping spikelets. Spikelets 7-8 mm long, 3-4(5) flowered, hairy or subglabrous; glumes with awn 2-4 mm long, mainly ciliate at keel; lemma about 7 mm long, with awn 2-3 mm long, glabrous or hairy. Flowers in May - June. Anemophilous. 2n=14.

Distribution.

Endemic. Crimea.

Ecology.

Typical plant of southern dry debris-stony, bald and poorly sodded, well warmed slopes of the eastern part of the mountain Crimea and the Crimean foothills.

Use and economic value.

Forage grass.

References:

Shelyag-Sosonko YuR., ed. Grasses of Ukraine. 1977. Kiev: Naukova Dumka. 518 p. (In Russian).
Tzvelev NN. 1976. Grasses of the Soviet Union. Leningrad: Nauka. 788 p. (In Russian).

© L.L.Malyshev