Reassessment of Poa moabitica (Poaceae: Pooideae), mistaken identity of P. chaixii, and notes on Hayne’s Plants of the Holy Land

Summary

Distributions reported for Poa chaixii in Plants of the World Online (2023) and Euro+Med Plantbase (https://europlusmed.org), based on Mouterde’s (1966a) cited collections, apply to P. moabitica. Poa chaixii does not occur in Syria, or anywhere else in the Levant. Poa moabitica is a very rare and distinctive species of sect. Homalopoa, known from only three collections. The Hayne type collection location, suggested to be Moab by Bor (1972), is here considered incorrect. Hayne’s Plants of the Holy Land specimens were collected from Jordan, Palestine, Lebanon and Syria in 1872. It is likely that P. moabitica, if it is still extant in nature (which is doubtful), only occurs locally in wet habitats of forested mountains of northwest Syria (Pabot collections), and northern Lebanon (type). The species might also be sought in the adjacent province of Hatay, Turkey. The species is Data Deficient but should probably be considered Endangered Globally and Locally.