帕米尔发草 pa mi er fa cao

Deschampsia pamirica Roshevitz in Komarov, Fl. URSS 2: 750. 1934.

Culms 30–80 cm tall. Leaf blades 2–3 mm. wide. Panicle contracted but not spikelike, narrowly elliptic or narrowly oblong in outline, erect, 6–15 cm, greenish yellow or gray-green, infrequently tinged violet-brown; branches suberect, smooth, lowest up to 5 cm. Spikelets 4.5–5 mm; glumes slightly shorter than or subequaling adjoining lemmas, apex obtuse, often lacerate; lemmas awned from slightly below middle to lower 1/4, or awnless; awn shorter than lemma. Fl. Jun–Aug.

Swampy, often saline, montane grasslands; 1800–3100 m. Xinjiang [Tajikistan (Pamirs)].

This is a local variant, intermediate between typical Deschampsia cespitosa, with an open panicle, and D. koelerioides. This subspecies is a taller, stouter plant than D. koelerioides, with a paler, less dense panicle, and occurs at somewhat lower altitudes.