优雅三毛草 you ya san mao cao

Avena flavescens J. D. Hooker (1896), not Linnaeus (1753).

Perennial, loosely tufted. Culms erect from geniculate base, 12–80 cm tall, 1.5–2 mm in diam., glabrous, 2–3-noded. Leaf sheaths usually shorter than internodes, glabrous, margins joined near base; leaf blades flat, soft, 10–20 cm, 2–8 mm wide, adaxial surface scattered pilose; ligule 1–4 mm. Panicle lax, lanceolate in outline, 7–15 cm, gray-green, brown or purplish; branches 1–3 at basal node, capillary, flexuous, smooth, glabrous, up to 5 cm. Spikelets 6.5–9 mm, florets 1–3; rachilla filiform, villous; glumes unequal, narrowly lanceolate, lower glume 4.5–5.3 mm, upper glume 6–7.2 mm, apex finely acuminate; callus glabrous; lemmas 6.5–8 mm, firm, golden brown, scaberulous around keel, otherwise smooth, awned from upper 1/4–1/3, apex 2-toothed, teeth 2.5–3 mm, slenderly acuminate-aristulate; awn 9–14 mm, weakly geniculate, column twisted; palea 1/2–2/3 length of lemma, keels slightly convex, scabrid. Anthers 1–1.5 mm. Fl. Jul–Sep.

Alpine scrub, meadows, gravel river banks; 4000–5000 m. Sichuan, Xizang, Yunnan [Bhutan, India (Sikkim), E Nepal].

This is a locally distributed, high-altitude species with a slender habit and large, brown, long-awned spikelets.