中华羊茅 zhong hua yang mao

Plants loosely tufted; shoots extravaginal. Culms 60–75 cm tall, nodes 3–4, dark purple. Leaf sheaths glabrous, uppermost 16–22 cm, much longer than its blade; auricles present as erect swellings or absent; leaf blades flat or involute, erect, rigid, 6–16 cm × 1.5–3.5 mm, uppermost much shorter, veins 7–13; adaxial to abaxial sclerenchyma strands present; ligule 0.3–1.5 mm, margin ciliolate. Panicle loose, open, 11–18 cm;branches ascending, 6–11 cm, 2 at lowest node, lower 1/2 naked. Spikelets 8–9 mm; florets 3–4; lower glume glabrous, 5–6 mm, apex acuminate; upper glume, 7–8 mm, scabrid on upper keel, apex acuminate; rachilla internodes 0.9–1.1 mm, hispidulous; lemmas 6.5–7.5 mm, pubescent; awns (absent to) 0.8–2 mm; palea keels ciliolate. Anthers 1.2–1.8 mm. Ovary apex glabrous or sparsely hairy. Fl. and fr. Jul–Sep.

* Alpine meadows, grassy mountain slopes, forests; 2600–4800 m. Gansu, Qinghai, Sichuan.

The relationships of this species are uncertain, although it has been placed in Festuca subg. Drymanthele.