Melica scabrosa Trinius var. radula (Franchet) Papp; M. sinica Ohwi.

Perennial, tufted. Culms 30–45 cm tall, 1–2 mm in diam. Leaf sheaths smooth or scabrid; leaf blades usually rolled, 5–12 cm × 0.8–2 mm (flattened), abaxial surface scabrid at least toward apex, adaxial surface shortly but densely pubescent; ligule ca. 0.5 mm. Panicle linear in outline, 6–15 cm; branches few, single, mostly erect, unbranched, laxly bearing 3–6 spikelets. Spikelets ovate, 5–8 mm, whitish green, fertile florets (1–)2(–3), terminal sterile lemmas gathered into globular cluster; glumes keeled, narrowly oblong-lanceolate in side view, subequal, 4–7 mm, slightly shorter than florets, lower glume 1–3-veined, upper glume 3–5-veined, keel scaberulous, both subacute; lemmas lanceolate-oblong, lowest 4.5–7 mm, herbaceous with narrowly membranous upper margins and apex, 7-veined with additional intermediate veins in lower half, coarsely tubercular-scabrid, apex obtuse; palea 2/3 lemma length, keels ciliolate. Anthers 1–2 mm. Fl. and fr. May–Aug.

The spikelets are much like those of Melica scabrosa, but the habit is more slender, with narrower leaf blades, pubescent on the adaxial surface, and a scanty panicle with markedly fewer spikelets.

* Mountain slopes, stream banks, field margins; 300–2100 m. Gansu, Hebei, Henan, Hubei, Nei Mongol, Ningxia, Shaanxi, Shandong, Shanxi, W Sichuan, NW Yunnan (Dêqên).