Golden Oatgrass

Common in the alpine zone between 2600 and 3600 m.

Loosely tufted perennial; culms 45-65 cm high or more, erect or geniculately ascending, glabrous. Leaf-blades 7-20 cm long, 3-6(-9) mm wide, flat, thinly it villous to scaberulous. Panicle oblong to narrowly lanceolate, dense or rather loose and interrupted, the axis and branches glabrous, 5-15 cm long, 1.5-2.5 cm wide. Spikelets 2-flowered with the rhachilla tipped with a rudimentary floret up to 1 mm long, or 3-flowered without a rhachilla extension, 5.5-8.5 mm long excluding the awns; glumes subequal or unequal, lanceolate, acute or acuminate, the lower 1-nerved, 3.5-5.5 mm long, the upper 4.5-6.5 mm long; lemma elliptic, 5-5.5 mm long, scaberulous below; awn 6-9.5 mm long, strongly recurved.

Himalaya (Kashmir to Nepal).

Distribution: Pakistan (N.W.F.P. & Kashmir); Nepal and Northwest India.

4000-4300 m

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

Annuals, Terrestrial, not aquatic, Stems nodes swollen or brittle, Stems erect or ascending, Stems geniculate, decumbent, or lax, sometimes rooting at nodes, Stems caespitose, tufted, or clustered, Stems terete, round in cross section, or polygonal, Stem internodes hollow, Stems with inflorescence less than 1 m tall, Stems, culms, or scapes exceeding basal leaves, Leaves mostly basal, below middle of stem, Leaves mostly cauline, Leaves conspicuously 2-ranked, distichous, Leaves sheathing at base, Leaf sheath mostly open, or loose, Leaf sheath smooth, glabrous, Leaf sheath hairy, hispid or prickly, Leaf sheath and blade differentiated, Leaf sheath enlarged, inflated or distended, Leaf blades linear, Leaf blades very narrow or filiform, less than 2 mm wide, Leaf blades 2-10 mm wide, Leaf blades mostly flat, Leaf blades mostly glabrous, Leaf blades more or less hairy, Ligule present, Ligule an unfringed eciliate membrane, Inflorescence terminal, Inflorescence an open panicle, openly paniculate, branches spreading, Inflorescence solitary, with 1 spike, fascicle, glomerule, head, or cluster per stem or culm, Inflorescence branches more than 10 to numerous, Flowers bisexual, Spikelets pedicellate, Spikelets laterally compressed, Spikelet less than 3 mm wide, Spikelets with 2 florets, Spikelets with 3-7 florets, Spikelets solitary at rachis nodes, Spikelets all alike and fertille, Spikelets bisexual, Spikelets disarticulating above the glumes, glumes persistent, Spikelets disarticulating beneath or between the florets, Rachilla or pedicel hairy, Glumes present, empty bracts, Glumes 2 clearly present, Glumes distinctly unequal, Glumes equal to or longer than adjacent lemma, Glumes keeled or winged, Glumes 3 nerved, Lemma similar in texture to glumes, Lemma 5-7 ner ved, Lemma glabrous, Lemma body or surface hairy, Lemma apex dentate, 2-fid, Lemma distinctly awned, more than 2-3 mm, Lemma with 1 awn, Lemma awn less than 1 cm long, Lemma awn subapical or dorsal, Lemma awns straight or curved to base, Lemma awn once geniculate, bent once, Lemma margins thin, lying flat, Lemma straight, Callus or base of lemma evidently hairy, Callus hairs shorter than lemma, Palea present, well developed, Palea membranous, hyaline, Palea shorter than lemma, Palea longer than lemma, Palea 2 nerved or 2 keeled, Stamens 3, Styles 2-fid, deeply 2-branched, Stigmas 2, Fruit - caryopsis.