喜马拉雅柳叶箬 xi ma la ya liu ye ruo

Perennial. Culms slender, stiffly erect or with a shortly decumbent rooting base, 30–80 cm tall, paler below the nodes but not glandular. Leaf sheaths shorter than internodes, glabrous except for stiffly ciliate outer margin; leaf blades broadly linear, suberect to ascending, 5–15 × 0.3–1 cm, glabrous to thinly hispid, margins prominently thickened, apex acuminate; ligule 2–3 mm. Panicle open, elliptic to ovate in outline, 5–14 × 2–8 cm, glandular; primary branches inserted singly, obliquely spreading, scaberulous, branchlets and pedicels capillary, flexuose, smooth. Spikelets globose, 1.9–2.2 mm, pale; florets similar; glumes equaling spikelet or a little shorter, broadly ovate, deeply concave, 7–9-veined, papillose-hispid or with only a few apical bristles or glabrous, apex rounded but margins incurling; lemmas strongly plano-convex, minutely roughened, subglabrous or pubescent with slightly longer hairs toward apex.

Swampy places; ca. 2000 m. Xizang [Afghanistan, Bhutan, N India, Nepal, Pakistan].

This is a Himalayan species with an erect habit and a loose, only moderately branched panicle of quite large, globose, often purple spikelets on flexuose, glandular pedicels. The leaf blades are narrower than in other similar species and are usually held fairly upright.