Description

Key Characters:

Growth Form: Perennials.

Stems: Culms erect, forming large, dense clumps, usually 6–9 dm tall.

Roots: Fibrous root system.

Leaves: Leaves simple. Alternate. Blades glaucous, cauline, 1.2–2.4 mm wide, flat to involute. Upper surfaces evenly pilose; lower surfaces sparsely pilose or glabrous. Margins entire. Veins parallel. Sheaths glabrous, margins overlapping, membranous; ligule membranous, ca. 2 mm long, margins entire to erose, apex unevenly rounded. Stipules absent.

Flowers: Flowers in panicles 30–50 cm long or longer, branches numerous, flexuous, ascending or spreading, partially or fully exserted from the subtending sheath. Glumes membranous, linear to lanceolate glabrous, apex acuminate, first glume 12– 19 mm long, 3–nerved, second glume ca. 11 mm long, 3–nerved; lemma chartaceous, 5– 10 mm long, papillose, pilose in lower part and on the nerves, awn 60–110 mm long, twice geniculate, the terminal segment flexuous, scabrous or basally short–pubescent; palea membranous, ovate, 1–1.5 mm long, glabrous, nerveless, apex rounded. Ovary superior.

Fruit: Caryopsis pale brown; cylindrical; trigonous; ca. 4 mm long.

Ploidy: 2n = 70

Habitat: Naturalized in subalpine woodland and shrubland.

Elevation Range: 1,830–2,140 m.