大臭草 da chou cao

Melica gmelinii Turczaninow ex Trinius, Mém. Acad. Imp. Sci. St.-Pétersbourg, Sér. 6, Sci. Math. 1: 368. 1831, not Roth (1789).

Perennial, tufted. Culms 40–130 cm tall, ca. 1.5 mm in diam. Leaf sheaths glabrous, lower sheaths tinged purplish brown; leaf blades flat, 6–18 cm × 3–7 mm, abaxial surface strongly scabrid on veins, adaxial surface shortly pilose; ligule 2–4 mm. Panicle open, ovate in outline, 10–20 cm; branches 2–3 per node, flexuously ascending or spreading, up to 9 cm, unbranched, spikelets spaced on 3–7 mm pedicels. Spikelets broadly elliptic, 8–13 mm, fertile florets 2 or 3, terminal sterile lemmas gathered into elongate cluster; glumes brownish purple or blackish, elliptic-oblong, subequal, 8–11 mm, papery, 5–7-veined with connecting veinlets, both obtuse; lemmas lanceolate-oblong, lowest 9–11 mm, 7-veined, additional intermediate veins in lower half, scaberulous-puberulous, hispid on veins below middle with stiff, ca. 1 mm, yellowish hairs, apex obtuse, sometimes shortly split; palea 1/2–2/3 lemma length, keels ciliolate. Anthers 1.5–3.5 mm. Fl. and fr. Jun–Aug. 2n = 18.

Fringes of conifer and Betula japonica forests in mountainous regions, meadows on N slopes; 700–2200 m. Hebei, Heilongjiang, Henan, Nei Mongol, Shanxi [N Korea, Mongolia, Russia (Far East, E Siberia)].