Avenula is a genus of Eurasian flowering plants in the grass family.Dumortier, Barthélemy Charles Joseph. 1868. Bulletin de la Société Botanique de Belgique 7(1): 68 in LatinTropicos, Avenula (Dumort.) Dumort. Over 100 names have been proposed for species, subspecies, varieties, and other infraspecific taxa within Avenula, but only one species is accepted. The others names are all regarded as synonyms of other accepted names. The only recognized species in the genus is Avenula pubescens, commonly known as downy oat-grass or downy alpine oatgrass, native to Europe and Asia from Iceland and Portugal to Xinjiang, Mongolia, and Siberia. It is also naturalized in scattered locations in North America,Röser, M., E. Döring, G. Winterfeld & J. Schneider. 2009. Generic realignments in the grass tribe Aveneae (Poaceae). Schlechtendalia 19: 27–38Valdes, B. & H. Scholz. 2006. The Euro+Med treatment of Gramineae - a generic synopsis and some new names. Willdenowia 36(2): 657–669.Altervista Flora Italiana, Avena pubescente, Downy Alpine Oatgrass, Avenula pubescens (Huds.) DumortFlora of China, Vol. 22 Page 318 毛轴异燕麦 mao zhou yi yan mai, Helictotrichon pubescens (Hudson) Pilger, Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. 45: 6. 1938. in states as Connecticut, Delaware, Minnesota, New Jersey and Vermont, and in Canadian provinces such as Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, and Saskatchewan.
Other genera containing species once included in Avenula: Helictochloa, Helictotrichon and Tricholemma.
See also List of Poaceae genera
References