凉山羊茅 liang shan yang mao

Plant loosely tufted with short slender rhizomes. Culms 60–80 cm tall, nodes 1–2. Leaf sheaths glabrous; auricles falcate; leaf blades flat, 6–13 cm × 2.5–4 mm, margins smooth, veins 15–17; adaxial to abaxial sclerenchyma strands present, abaxial sclerenchyma in narrow discrete strands; ligule 0.3–0.5 mm, margin glabrous. Panicle loose, open, 8–20 cm; branches flexuous, 3–9 cm, 2 at lowest node, one long and the other short, smooth. Spikelets 10–20 mm; florets 3–8; glumes smooth, apex obtuse; lower glume narrowly lanceolate, 4–6 mm; upper glume lanceolate, 6–7 mm; rachilla internodes 1.8–2.2 mm, smooth; lemmas 7.5–9 mm, punctiform or scaberulous, apex entire or slightly notched; awns 4.5–13 mm; palea keels scaberulous. Anthers 3.6–4 mm. Ovary apex glabrous. Fl. and fr. Jul.

* Grassy mountain slopes; ca. 1200 m. Sichuan (Liang Shan, Xichang).

This species resembles Festuca gigantea in its falcate auricles, long awns, and glabrous ovary apex.