Elymus schrenkianus (Fisch. & C. A. Mey. ex Schrenk) Tzvelev

c. 4500 m.

Tufted perennial without rhizomes; culms (20-)35-90 cm high, erect or geniculately ascending, slender or stout. Leaf-blades flat or loosely rolled, 4.5-15 cm long, 1.5-4 mm wide, glabrous or sparsely long-hairy on both sides. Spike dense, 1-sided, 5-11 cm long straight or curved, often deeply suffused with purple; rhachis joints glabrous or sparsely scabrid along the margins. Spikelets 3-5-flowered,8-12 mm long (excluding the awns); rhachilla twisted above the glumes bringing the florets ± dorsi-ventral to the spike-axis, the midrib of the lower glume not in the same line as that of the lowest lemma; glumes subequal, elliptic, 3-4.5 mm long (excluding the awn) narrowed above into an awn 2-5 mm long; lemma elliptic, 9-11 mm long, sparsely to densely bristly on the back, produced at the tip into a stout, strongly curved awn 1.5-2.5 cm long; palea as long as the body of the lemma; anthers 1.25-1.5 mm long.

Culms robust, 30–90 cm tall. Sheath of lower leaves retrorsely pubescent; leaf blade flat, 5–8 × 0.3–0.6 cm, scabrous or sometimes pubescent. Spike nodding, ± secund, dense, 5–11 cm; internodes 3–8 mm. Spikelets 1 per node, usually very shortly pedicellate, purplish green, with 3 or 4(or 5) florets. Glumes linear-lanceolate, 3-veined; proximal glume 4–4.5 mm, awn 2–3.5 mm; distal glume 4.5–5.5 mm, awn ca. 5 mm. Lemma lanceolate, very scabrous; first lemma ca. 11 mm; awn divaricate, 15–22 mm. Palea subequaling or equaling lemma, hispid along keels, apex subobtuse. Anthers 1.5–1.8 mm. Fl. and fr. Jun–Jul. 2n = 42*.

C. Asia, Himalaya (Nepal, Bhutan), S.E. Tibet, China.

Distribution: Pakistan (N.W.F.P., Gilgit & Kashmir); Central Asia and the Himalayas.

2700-4300 m

Fl. & Fr. Per.: July-August.

Glades, mountain slopes, dry river meadows. Qinghai, Xinjiang, Xizang [Bhutan, India (Sikkim), Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Nepal, Russia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan].

Triticum schrenkianum Fischer & C. A. Meyer, Bull. Cl. Phys.-Math. Acad. Imp. Sci. Saint-Pétersbourg 3:305. 1845; Agropyron schrenkianum (Fischer & C. A. Meyer) P. Candargy; Campeiostachys schrenkiana (Fischer & C. A. Meyer) Drobow; Roegneria schrenkiana (Fischer & C. A. Meyer) Nevski.