窄颖早熟禾 zhai ying zao shu he

Basionym: Poa stenachyra Keng ex P. C. Keng & G. Q. Song, Acta Biol. Plateau Sin. 12: 10. 1994.

Plants green or pale green, loosely tufted, not forming a turf, shoots mainly extravaginal. Culms erect, solitary or few per tuft, 80–110 cm tall, smooth, rounded or slightly compressed, nodes 2–4, 1 or 2 exserted, uppermost node 1/5–1/4 way up. Leaf sheaths smooth, somewhat keeled, uppermost to 19 cm, ca. 2 × as long as blade; blades flat with margins slightly inrolled, leathery, 10–16 cm × 3–4 mm, adaxially sparsely scabrid; ligule 1–2 mm, abaxially scabrid, margin erose, apex obtuse. Panicle open, 10–15 × 4–8 cm, longest internode 3.7–4.2 cm; branches widely spreading to nodding, 3–5 per node, proximally rounded and smooth, distally moderately scabrid, longest 6–8 cm with 8–13 spikelets in distal 1/2. Spikelets 5–6 mm, florets 3; glumes subequal, keel moderately scabrid, surfaces sparsely scabrid, lower glume 3.5–4 mm, 1- or 3-veined, upper glume 4–5 mm, 3-veined, as long or slightly longer than first lemma; lemma narrowly lanceolate, 4–4.5 mm, apex acuminate, yellow bronze, intermediate veins prominent, keel villous for 1/2 length, marginal veins to 1/3, surfaces indistinctly minutely bumpy, sparsely scabrid; palea glabrous between keels, keels finely scabrid. Anthers ca. 2.3 mm. Fl. and fr. Jun–Aug.

* Forest margins on slopes, grassy places among thickets; 3700–4300 m. Qinghai, NW Sichuan.

This rare race differs from the others by having glumes and lemmas narrowly acuminate, the glumes subequal to the lowest lemma.