瑞士羊茅 rui shi yang mao

Plant densely tufted; shoots intravaginal. Culms 20–35(–50) cm tall, nodes 1(–2). Leaf sheaths glabrous or basal leaf sheaths occasionally with trichomes; auricles present as erect swellings; leaf blades filiform, green or bluish, conduplicate, (2–)6–15(–20) cm × 0.3–1.1 mm, veins (3–)5(–7); adaxial to abaxial sclerenchyma strands absent, abaxial sclerenchyma in 3(–5) discrete strands; ligule 0.1–0.3 mm, margin ciliate. Panicle spikelike, 3–7 cm; branches 1–2.5 cm, scabrid, 1 at lowest node. Spikelets 4.5–6 mm, greenish brown or purplish; florets (2–)3–5; glumes sometimes with ciliolate margins; lower glume lanceolate, 2–2.6(–3.5) mm; upper glume broadly lanceolate, 3–4.2 mm; rachilla internodes 0.4–0.8(–1.2) mm; lemmas 3.8–5 mm, scabrid; awns 0.7–2.2 mm; palea keels scabrid. Anthers (1–)1.6–2.4 mm. Ovary apex glabrous. Fl. and fr. May–Aug.

Grassy mountain slopes, subalpine meadows, grasslands, roadsides; 1000–3700 m. Guizhou, Jilin, Qinghai, Nei Mongol, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Sichuan, Xinjiang, Xizang, Yunnan [Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan; SW Asia, Europe].

The name Festuca valesiaca is used here in a broad sense, distinguished from the F. rubra complex by its intravaginal shoots and weakly defined ribs; from the F. ovina complex by its discrete sclerenchyma strands; and from the F. cumminsii complex by its leaf sheaths open for more than half their length. Subspecies that have been recognized within this complex occurring in or near China are distinguished as follows.