Cleistogenes songorica (Roshev.) Ohwi

This species of desert steppe is recognized by its dense tufts of gray-green leaves, and awnless, often purple spikelets with broader lemmas than the other species of the genus. The name Cleistogenes tho-roldii (Orinus thoroldii in this account) has been misapplied to C. songorica in C Asian literature.

This is an excellent forage grass.

Culms compactly tufted with tomentose roots, bases slightly swollen and clothed in pale papery old sheaths, lacking basal scaly buds, erect or ascending, 15–35(–50) cm tall, ca. 1 mm in diam., unbranched, leafy to base. Leaf sheaths longer than internodes, glabrous but pilose at mouth; leaf blades linear, grayish green, tough, flat or slightly involute, stiffly patent, 2–6 × 0.15–0.25 cm, glabrous, acute; ligule ca. 0.5 mm. Panicle open, 2–5 cm, exserted or not from uppermost leaf sheath; branches pilose in the axils, usually widely spreading, racemose, lowest branch 2–3.5 cm. Spikelets 4–8 mm, green or purple, florets 3–6; glumes lanceolate, 1-veined, acute; lower glume 2–3 mm; upper glume 3–4 mm; lemmas ovate, lowest 3–4.5 mm, pilose on lower flanks and back, apex entire, acute or with mucro less than 0.5 mm; palea keels ciliate. Anthers 1–2 mm. Fl. and fr. Jul–Sep.

Dry, sandy, or stony open grasslands, deserts. Gansu, Henan, Nei Mongol, Ningxia, Qinghai, Shaanxi, Xinjiang [Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Russia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan].

Diplachne songorica Roshevitz, Fl. URSS. 2: 752. 1934; Cleistogenes mutica Keng; Kengia mutica (Keng) Packer; K. songorica (Roshevitz) Packer.