Elymus fedtschenkoi Tzvelev

2800-4300m.

Elymus curvatiformis (Nevski) Tzvelev differs from Elymus fedtschenkoi only by its laxer spike without secund spikelets, its narrower, convolute, leaf-blades and its smooth glumes. It was described from the Kurram Valley on the basis of specimen Aitchison 903. An isotype, or at least a specimen bearing the same number, is at Kew, but in no respect does it agree with Nevski’s circumscription. The status of the species awaits further investigation.

Culms erect or slightly geniculate at base, robust, 50–100 cm tall. Leaf sheath smooth, glabrous, rarely pilose at base; leaf blade 0.5–1.2 cm wide, glabrous, scabrous, or adaxial surface laxly pilose. Spike erect or slightly curved, often somewhat secund, dense, 7–16 cm. Spikelets 1 per node, subsessile, green or greenish tawny-purple, 15.5–25 mm excluding awns, with 5 or 6 florets. Glumes broadly lanceolate, 11–18 × 2.3–3.5 mm, 5–7-veined, margin membranous, apex acuminate, pointed, sometimes with a tooth. Lemma lanceolate, 10–14 mm, scabrous or appressed setose; awn reflexed, 25–37 mm. Palea lanceolate, 9–13 mm, hispid along keels, apex subobtuse. Anthers 2.5–3 mm. Fl. and fr. Jun–Jul. 2n = 28*.

Tufted perennial without rhizomes; culms 55-120 cm high, erect, usually rather stout. Leaf-blades flat, 12-30 cm long, 3-11 mm wide, scaberulous on both sides or puberulous beneath. Spike usually dense, 7-12 cm long (excluding the awns), straight or slightly curved, the spikelets often secund; rhachis joints scabrid along the margins. Spikelets 4-6-flowered, 16-22 mm long (excluding the awns); glumes subequal, elliptic-oblong, 11-17 mm long, scabrid, sometimes with a lobe or tooth on one side above, abruptly contracted to an acuminate tip; lemma elliptic-oblong, 12-14 mm long, (excluding the awn), scabrid or shortly pubescent on the back, narrowed above into a stout, strongly curved awn 1.5-4 cm long; palea about as long as the body of the lemma or a little shorter; anthers 2.5-3 mm long.

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

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

Mountain meadows. Xinjiang [Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan].

Agropyron curvatum Nevski, Izv. Bot. Sada Akad. Nauk SSSR 30: 629. 1932; Elymus curvatus (Nevski) D. F. Cui (1996), not Piper (1903); Roegneria curvata (Nevski) Nevski; R. fedtschenkoi (Tzvelev) N. R. Cui, nom. superfl.