Vulpia bromoides (L.)

Cho, Yanghoon, Kim, Jonghwan, Han, Jeong Eun & Lee, Byoungyoon, 2016, Vascular plants of Poaceae (Ⅰ) new to Korea: Vulpia bromoides (L.) Gray, Agrostis capillaris L. and Eragrostis pectinacea (Michx.) Nees, Journal of Species Research 5 (1), pp. 14-21 : 14-16

1. Vulpia bromoides (L.) Gray, Nat. Arr. Brit. Pl. 2: 124, 1821.

Basionym: Festuca bromoides L. , Sp. Pl. 1: 75, 1753.

Korean name: Deul-mug-sae-a-jae-bi (ṻệNjḓNjffi)

Annual. Culums solitary or loosely caespitose, growing 15-40cm in height, erect to decumbent, slender and hairless, unbranched. Leaf sheaths encloses the stem partially at base, glabrous, closely held to the stem, without keel, margins entire. Leaf blades flat or slightly involute, linear or filiform, apex attenuate, 5-10 cm long and 0.5-2.0 mm wide, surface glabrous or sparsely pilose, margins scaberulous, abaxally glabrous or sparsely pubescent, ligules eciliate membranous, 0.2-0.4 mm long. Panicle exserted, open, or contracted, lanceolate or oblong, somewhat nodding, 1.5-8 cm long, 1-3 cm wide, with 1 branch per node, branches appressed or ascending, angular, scaberulous. Spikelets solitary, pedicelled, comprising 5-10 florets, oblong, or cuneate, laterally compressed, 5-10 mm long, not closely imbricated, disarticulating below each floret. Rhachilla internodes 0.5- 0.8 mm, eventually visible between lemmas, scaberulous. Glumes persistent, similar, shorter than spikelet. Lower glume linear to lanceolate, 4-6 mm long, 1/2- 4/5 length of upper glume, membranous, 1-veined, apex acute. Upper glume lanceolate, 5-8 mm long, as long as adjacent lemma, membranous, 3-veined, mid vein scabrous distally, apex attenuate. Lemma lanceolate, 6-8 mm long, chartaceous, 5-veined, scaberulous, apex acuminate, 1-awned, awn 5-10 mm long. Palea as long as lemma, 6-8 mm long, 2-veined, keels scaberulous, minutely bifid. Anthers 3, 0.3-1.2 mm long. Caryopsis 3.5-5 mm, with adherent pericarp, glabrous. Hilum linear, as long as caryopsis. Flowering at May, and Fruiting at May to June.

Habitats. Disturbed areas near paved roads.

Distribution. W, SE and S Asia, Africa, Europe, Australia, America.

Specimens examined. Haksong-ri, Yeongam-eup, Yeongam-gun , Jeollanam-do, N 34°78′75.04″ E 126°73′ 78091″, 17 May. 2014. J. H . Kim and Cho Y. H . 140775 (2 sheets, KB).

Vulpia C.C. Gmel. is a widespread genus in Poaceae , including 26 species, native to many countries around the world, especially to Mediterranean regions and western America. The genus is one of the most common weeds found in temperate regions ( Osada, 1989; Chen et al., 2006; Lonard, 2007). However, many species of the genus were naturalized in many of the nations (Cotton and Stace, 1976). The genus Vulpia was considered to be closely related to the genus Festuca by sharing common characters such as spikelets 3 to 10 flowered, long or short awned at the tip of lemma, and callus glabrous ( Osada, 1989). However, the former genus can be distinguished mainly by the annual habit from the latter one, and described as an independent genus in several flora and maunuscripts (Cotton and Stace, 1976; Mabberley, 1997; Lu and Phillips, 2006). In Korea, 2 species of the genus ( V. myuros and V. megalura ) are known to be distributed, but both of them were arranged inside the genus Festuca , not Vulpia ( Lee, 2007; Korea National Arboretum, 2011; Lee et al., 2011). For convenience, the arrangement of these two taxa into Vulpia will be followed in this paper. In addition to these species, Vulpia bromoides (L.) Gray was collected at wastelands near paved roads at Yeongam-gun, Jeollanam-do. Mediterranean region was known as the area of the greatest genetic diversity of the genus Vulpia , but several species of the genus are distributed throughout the most of Europe. Both V. bromoides and V. myuros native to Europe were introduced accidently to Korea and Japan while V. megalura was naturalized in Korea, escaped from its origin, North America. These two European taxa, Vulpia bromoides and V. myuros , resemble to each other with the morphological differences as follows. The length of lower glumes of the former one is more than 1/2 of upper glumes, whereas lower glumes of the latter are much shorter, less than the half of the upper glumes in their length. The branch of inflorescence is only one in the former, not 2 as in the latter. V. bromoides is observed about 10 individuals in wastelands near paved roads. Morphological similarities between these two species lead lots of misidentification of herbarium specimens, and thus more careful examination of specimens of the genus Vulpia collected in Korea will be helpful in understanding exact distribution of the alien species.