柔弱草沙蚕 rou ruo cao sha can

Culms 25–34 cm tall. Leaf sheaths white-villous below blade; leaf blades inrolled, 4–11 cm, adaxial surface scabrid or sometimes pubescent toward base, abaxial surface glabrous. Racemes 8–15 cm, drooping, spikelets their own length apart or slightly imbricate. Spikelets 6–8 mm, brownish green; florets 6–8, imbricate; lower glume lanceolate, nearly symmetrical, 2.5–3.5 mm, apex entire, sharply acuminate; upper glume lanceolate, 4–5 mm, margins narrowly membranous, apex 2-denticulate; lemmas lanceolate, 3.5–4.5 mm, 2-dentate, central awn 3–4 mm, erect, teeth acute, lateral veins extended into 0.3–0.5 mm mucros from outer edge of teeth; palea ca. 1 mm shorter than lemma, keels wingless, ciliate. Anthers 3, 1.3–1.5 mm.

* Stony slopes, roadsides, wasteland; 3100–3800 m. Sichuan (Hengduan Shan).

This species is close to Tripogon sichuanicus, which also occurs in similar habitats in W Sichuan. The protologue states that there is usually only 1 anther, but the accompanying illustration shows 3. The presence of a single anther is not otherwise recorded among the species related to T. chinensis.