Clinelymus tangutorum Nevski, Bull. Jard. Bot. Acad. Sci. URSS 30: 647. 1932; Elymus molliusculus L. B. Cai.

Culms erect or geniculate at base, to 120 cm tall, 4- or 5-noded. Leaf sheath smooth; leaf blade flat, 10–20 × 0.6–1.4 cm, both surfaces scabrous or abaxial surface smooth and adaxial surface pilose. Spike erect, usually dense, 8–15 × 0.8–1 cm; rachis margin ciliolate. Spikelets usually 2 per node, green or slightly purplish, 9–15 mm, with 3 or 4 florets. Glumes lanceolate or linear-lanceolate, 7–10 mm, obscurely 5-veined, scabrous or hirsutulous along veins, apex acuminate or with awn 1–3 mm. Lemma lanceolate, glabrous, or hirsutulous distally; first lemma 8–12 mm; awn erect, (3–)5–11 mm. Palea equaling lemma, ciliate along keels, apex narrowly obtuse. Fl. and fr. late summer. 2n = 42.

Elymus molliusculus is very similar to E. tangutorum in culm height and features of leaf blade, spike, spikelets, and lemma. It is therefore treated here in synonymy.

Mountain slopes, steppes. Gansu, Guizhou, Hubei, Nei Mongol, Ningxia, Qinghai, Shanxi, Sichuan, Xinjiang, Xizang, Yunnan [Bhutan, ?Nepal].