西藏羊茅 xi zang yang mao

Festuca valesiaca var. tibetica Stapf in J. D. Hooker, Fl. Brit. India 7: 349. 1896 ["1897"].

Plants densely tufted, old basal sheaths present; shoots intravaginal. Culms 4–17 cm tall, node 1. Leaf sheaths glabrous; auricles present as erect swellings or absent; leaf blades conduplicate, 1.5–10.5 cm × 0.6–0.8 mm, abaxial surface smooth, veins 7; adaxial to abaxial sclerenchyma strands absent; abaxial sclerenchyma in narrow discrete strands; ligule 0.1–0.4 mm, margin ciliolate. Panicle contracted, 1.5–3 cm; branches 0.5–1 cm, 1–2 at lowest node. Spikelets 4–6 mm, greenish; florets 3–4; glumes glabrous; lower glume lanceolate, 2.3–2.8 mm; upper glume lanceolate, 3.8–4.2 mm; rachilla internodes 0.6–0.8 mm; lemmas 3.3–3.7 mm, scabrid or pubescent; awns 1–1.8 mm; palea keels scabrid. Anthers 0.8–1.2(–1.4) mm. Ovary apex glabrous. Fl. and fr. Jul–Sep.

Grassy mountain slopes; 2700–4000 m. Xizang, Yunnan [Bhutan, India (Sikkim)].

This taxon is composed of short plants from high altitudes in Xizang. It is sometimes considered conspecific with Festuca coelestis in the F. cumminsii complex.