Festuca amblyodes V. I. Krecz. & Bobrov

Plant loosely tufted or turf-forming. Culms 15–30 cm tall, nodes 1–2. Leaf sheaths smooth; auricles present as erect swellings; leaf blades conduplicate, 5–15 cm × 0.3–0.5 mm, 1/3–1/2 length of culms, veins 5; adaxial to abaxial sclerenchyma strands absent, abaxial sclerenchyma in narrow discrete strands; ligule (0.2–)0.4–0.6 mm, margin ciliolate. Panicle loose, open, 3–5 cm; branches 1–2(–4) cm, inserted singly. Spikelets 6–11 mm, greenish, purplish or brown; florets 3–5; glumes smooth, margins narrowly membranous; lower glume narrowly lanceolate, 2–2.8 mm; upper glume lanceolate, 3.4–4.1 mm; rachilla internodes 1.2–1.6 mm, scabrid or pubescent; lemmas 4.5–6.2 mm, punctiform toward apex, smooth below; awns 1–1.5 mm; palea keels scabrid. Anthers 1.8–2.4 mm. Ovary apex sparsely hairy. Fl. and fr. Jun–Aug.

Qinghai, Xinjiang, Yunnan [E Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan].

Meadow steppes, alpine meadows, mountain valleys; 2200–3700 m.

Festuca amblyodes subsp. erectiflora (Pavlov) Tzvelev; F. erectiflora Pavlov.