蒙古穗三毛 meng gu sui san mao

Plant 9–20 cm. Culms pubescent, leaf blades and sheaths glabrous to densely pubescent. Panicle elliptic-oblong to ovate, dense, 1.5–2.5 cm, greenish or brownish, rarely purple. Spikelets with 2 florets, lower glume 4–5.5 mm, upper glume 4.6–6.3 mm; lowest lemma 5–6 mm, scaberulous to shortly pubescent, apex entire or 2-denticulate-aristulate; awn 2–4 mm, straight or outwardly curved at base, not twisted. Fl. and fr. Jun–Sep.

Grassy mountain slopes, alpine meadows, among shrubs; 2000–5200 m. Nei Mongol, Qinghai, Sichuan, Xinjiang, Xizang [Bhutan, India (Sikkim), Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Russia (Siberia)].

This is a less hairy form than subsp. tibeticum, distinguished also by its relatively short, almost straight awns. Some specimens from above 5000 m in Xizang match subsp. mongolicum except for their longer (5–6 mm), twisted awns.

"Trisetum spicatum var. mongolicum (Hultén) P. C. Kuo & Z. L. Wu," as given in FRPS (9(3): 140. 1987), was not validly published because "T. spicatum subsp. mongolicum Hultén" (Svensk Bot. Tidskr. 53:214. 1959), on which it was based, was also not validly published because no type was indicated.