麦宾草 mai bin cao

Clinelymus tangutorum Nevski, Bull. Jard. Bot. Acad. Sci. URSS 30: 647. 1932; Elymus molliusculus L. B. Cai.

Culms erect or geniculate at base, to 120 cm tall, 4- or 5-noded. Leaf sheath smooth; leaf blade flat, 10–20 × 0.6–1.4 cm, both surfaces scabrous or abaxial surface smooth and adaxial surface pilose. Spike erect, usually dense, 8–15 × 0.8–1 cm; rachis margin ciliolate. Spikelets usually 2 per node, green or slightly purplish, 9–15 mm, with 3 or 4 florets. Glumes lanceolate or linear-lanceolate, 7–10 mm, obscurely 5-veined, scabrous or hirsutulous along veins, apex acuminate or with awn 1–3 mm. Lemma lanceolate, glabrous, or hirsutulous distally; first lemma 8–12 mm; awn erect, (3–)5–11 mm. Palea equaling lemma, ciliate along keels, apex narrowly obtuse. Fl. and fr. late summer. 2n = 42.

Mountain slopes, steppes. Gansu, Guizhou, Hubei, Nei Mongol, Ningxia, Qinghai, Shanxi, Sichuan, Xinjiang, Xizang, Yunnan [Bhutan, ?Nepal].

Elymus molliusculus is very similar to E. tangutorum in culm height and features of leaf blade, spike, spikelets, and lemma. It is therefore treated here in synonymy.