高山茅香 gao shan mao xiang

Holcus monticola Bigelow, New England J. Med. Surg. 5: 334. 1816; Hierochloë alpina (Swartz ex Willdenow) Roemer & Schultes; H. monticola (Bigelow) A. Löve & D. Löve; Holcus alpinus Swartz ex Willdenow.

Plant forming loose mats, shortly rhizomatous, base clothedin papery old sheaths. Culms solitary or few, erect, 10–40 cm tall, 2–3-noded. Leaf sheaths smooth, glabrous, longer than internodes, upper slightly inflated; leaf blades glossy, basal inrolled, 20–30 cm, 2–3 mm wide, culm blades shorter, flat; ligule 1–2 mm. Panicle contracted, oblong or ovate in outline, 1.5–4 × 1–2 cm; branches short, paired. Spikelets broadly oblong, 5–6 mm; glumes subequal, as long as spikelet, lower 1–3-veined, upper 3–5-veined; lower florets staminate, lemmas scabrid-pubescent on back, hispid toward apex, margins ciliate; first lemma emarginate with 1–3 mm, straight subapical awn; second lemma 2-cleft to middle or below, awned from sinus, awn weakly geniculate, 4–7 mm; bisexual floret ca. 4 mm, pilose toward apex; palea 1-veined, ciliolate along upper part of vein; anthers ca. 2.5 mm. Fl. and fr. Jul–Aug. 2n = 56 (also 58, 63, 64, 66, 68, 71, 72, 74–78).

Alpine steppe; ca. 2300 m. NE China [Japan, Korea, Mongolia, Russia; N Europe, North America].

This is an arctic-alpine species of both the Old and New Worlds.

The specific epithet of Holcus alpinus cannot be used when this name is transferred to Anthoxanthum because the heterotypic name A. alpinum A. Löve & D. Löve already exists.