落芒草 luo mang cao

Perennial, loosely tufted from a short rhizome. Culms 30–100 cm tall, 3–5-noded. Leaf sheaths smooth or scabrid; leaf blades linear, flat, 6–30 cm, 2–5 mm wide, abaxial surface glabrous, adaxial surface puberulous; ligule lanceolate, 2–5 mm. Panicle open, often ovate in outline, 10–25 cm; branches (1–)2(–3) per node, distant, ascending or widely spreading, longest up to 1/2 panicle length, scabrid, lower 2/3 bare. Spikelets gray-green or apex and margins purple; glumes lanceolate, 4.5–8 mm, papery, apex narrowly acuminate into sharp beak; callus glabrous; lemma lanceolate, 2.5–4.5(–5) mm, back pubescent, glabrescent along midline at maturity, apex acute, constricted at awn insertion; awn fine, caducous, 6–9 mm, straight or slightly flexuous. Anthers 1–2.5 mm, apex bearded. Fl. and fr. Jun–Aug.

Alpine scrub, mountain meadows, roadsides, farmlands, alluvial fans; 2200–5000 m. Gansu, Guizhou, Qinghai, Sichuan, Xinjiang, Xizang, Yunnan [E Afghanistan, Bhutan, N India, Kashmir, Nepal, N Pakistan].

This is a common species from high parts of W China and the W Himalayas. It is readily recognizable by its relatively robust habit, large, open panicle with sharply purple-beaked spikelets, lanceolate, hairy lemmas, and long, delicate awns constricted at the base and readily falling.