大花穗三毛 da hua sui san mao

Trisetum alaskanum Nash, Bull. New York Bot. Gard. 2: 155. 1901; T. formosanum Honda; T. spicatum var. alaskanum (Nash) Malte ex Louis-Marie; T. spicatum subsp. formosanum (Honda) Veldkamp; T. spicatum var. formosanum (Honda) Ohwi.

Plant up to 60 cm tall. Culms pubescent, leaf blades and sheaths glabrous or pilose. Panicle linear-elliptic, dense or slightly loose toward base, 5–11 cm, green or brownish. Spikelets with 2 or 3 florets; lower glume 5–8 mm, upper glume 5.5–9 mm; lowest lemma 5–7 mm, scabrid apex acute or 2-dentate; awn 5–7 mm, slightly outwardly curved, not twisted. Fl. and fr. Jun–Sep.

Gravel slopes, alpine meadows; 3800–5600 m. Sichuan, Taiwan, Xizang, Yunnan [Bhutan, India (Sikkim), Japan, Korea, Russia (Far East); North America (Canada, United States)].

This is the most robust member of the complex in China and has the largest spikelets. It has a general distribution along the mountain chains on both sides of the N Pacific, but specimens with these dimensions also occur in the Himalayas, where it intergrades with subsp. virescens. Conversely, specimens with the slightly smaller spikelet dimensions of subsp. virescens are known from Tianjin.

A robust form from Kashmir with pubescent lemmas has been named Trisetum spicatum var. pubiflorum (Hackel) L. Liu (T. pubi-florum Hackel). This has also been reported from the Hengduan Shan.