Stipa consanguinea Trin. & Rupr.

This species has sometimes been considered conspecific with Stipa koelzii (a synonym of S. capillacea in this treatment), but it has much larger glumes lacking filamentous tips and more clearly pubescent, non-spiralling awns. It also grows in drier habitats.

Stipa consanguinea resembles Stipa capensis in that the awns become twisted together to form a tail at the summit of the panicle, but the awns are hairy through-out and the plant is perennial.

Perennial, tufted. Culms erect or geniculate at base, 15–50 cm tall, 2-noded. Leaf sheaths shorter than internodes; leaf blades grayish green, setaceous, abaxial surface smooth, glabrous; ligule of basal leaves 0.1–0.4 mm, of culm leaves 1–1.5 mm. Panicle contracted, 6–8 cm, base enclosed in uppermost leaf sheath. Spikelets tinged purplish; glumes subequal, 2.2–2.6 cm, hyaline, apex long acuminate; callus short; lemma 8–10 mm, hairy in longitudinal lines, hairs denser in lower part, a ring of short hairs at awn articulation; awn deciduous, 8–11 cm, pubescent, 1(or 2)-geniculate, hairs on column 0.2–0.4 mm, bristle slightly flexuous, hairs 0.4–0.7 cm. Fl. and fr. May–Jul.

Tufted perennial 17-25(-75) cm high. Leaf-blades flat or folded, 1-5 mm wide, pubescent to glabrous below, puberulous above; ligule 1-1.5 mm long. Panicle contracted, untidy when mature, 6-12(-22) cm long, partially enclosed by the slightly inflated sheath of the uppermost leaf, eventually ± fully exserted. Glumes subequal, narrowly lanceolate and long-acuminate, 20-25 mm long, 3-nerved; lemma ± terete, 8-10 mm long (including callus), thinly pubescent to glabrous except in the lower part where the short hairs are confined to straight lines, and at the tip where there is a crown of stiffer hairs; callus acuminate, pungent, 1.8-2.3 mm long. Awns bigeniculate, articulated at the base, becoming en-tangled at maturity to form a tail at the summit of the panicle, 55-90 mm long, thinly hairy throughout with hairs not exceeding 0.8 mm long.

Himalaya, N. Asia, Tibet.

Xinjiang [Mongolia (Altai), Russia (Altai)].

Distribution: Kashmir; Altai, Mongolia, Tibet.

4000 m

Open stony slopes; 1500–2500 m.