辣薄荷草 la bo he cao

Perennial, shortly rhizomatous; old basal sheaths papery, ribbonlike, often spirally curling. Culms densely tufted, moderately robust to wiry, 0.2–1.5 cm tall, lower internodes short, crowded. Leaf sheaths smooth, glabrous, congested and overlapping at base; leaf blades glaucous, involute or flat, 20–50 × 0.1–0.5 cm, glabrous, apex filiform; ligule 0.5–4 mm. Spathate compound panicle narrow, 10–40 cm; spatheoles in dense woolly clusters, straw-colored or becoming purplish, 1–2 cm; racemes 1–1.8(–2.2) cm; rachis internodes and pedicels ca. 2 mm, densely white-villous, hairs as long as spikelets; pedicel of homogamous pair not swollen. Sessile spikelet narrowly lanceolate, 4.5–5.5 mm; lower glume thin, concave, glabrous, sharply 2-keeled, keels scabrid upward, not winged, 0(–3)-veined between keels; upper lemma 2-lobed; awn almost straight, column and limb weakly differentiated, 0.5–1 cm. Pedicelled spikelet 5–6 mm. Fl. and fr. Mar–May and Jul–Aug. 2n = 20.

Mountain slopes, dry valleys. SW Sichuan, Xizang, Yunnan (Yuanmou) [Afghanistan, Bhutan, N India, Nepal, Pakistan; SW Asia (Iran, Iraq, Oman)].