Stipa purpurascens Hitchcock.

Perennial, densely tufted. Culms 20–50 cm tall. Basal leaves 1/3–1/2 length of culms; leaf sheaths glabrous; leaf blades setaceous, convolute, outer surface smooth or slightly scaberulous, apex often with a tuft of ca. 0.2 mm spinules; ligule lanceolate, 4–6 mm, puberulent. Panicle narrow, 3–10 cm, exserted from uppermost leaf sheath; branches suberect, spikelets few. Spikelets purple with pale tips; glumes subequal or lower glume slightly longer, narrowly oblong, 1.1–1.4 cm, membranous, apex acute to finely acuminate; callus pungent, 1–1.5 mm; lemma 7–8 mm, pubescent, hairs slightly longer below awn; awn stout, stiff, 1.5–2 cm, 1–2-geniculate, column weakly twisted, shortly plumose, 0.3–0.5 cm to first bend, ca. 0.5 cm to second bend, this sometimes obscure, hairs 0.7–1 mm decreasing toward bristle, bristle ca. 1 cm, setulose, hairs appressed, 0.1–0.2 mm. Fl. and fr. Jul–Sep.

The combination "Achnatherum purpurascens (Hitchcock) Keng" (Claves Gen. Sp. Gram. Prim. Sin. 106, 213. 1957) was not validly published because Keng did not cite the place and date of valid publication of the basionym.

This is a forage grass in montane regions.

Montane grasslands, alluvial flats in mountain valleys, floodplains; 1600–4600 m. Gansu, Ningxia, Qinghai, Sichuan, Xinjiang, Xizang, Yunnan [Kashmir, E Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan (Tian Shan), Tajikistan (E Pamirs)].