Agrostis pilosula Trin.

This is a polymorphic species in which several rather ill-defined varieties have been distinguished. Agrostis pilosula var. pilosula has a large, effuse panicle with branches to 10 cm. The name A. pilosula var. wallichiana has been misapplied to a variant with a smaller, stiffly branched panicle and small, purple spikelets. The type of A. wallichiana has a pale green panicle with long, flexuous branches.

A polymorphic species with a number of named, but not very distinct, varieties: var. pilosula has a very large, effuse panicle; var. filifolia (in Madras only) has filiform basal leaves; var. wallichiana is a small plant with a small, bright purple panicle. For var. royleana, see below.

1400-3700 m.

Agrostis munroana x Agrostis pilosula is fairly common where the parents grow together. It is largely male-sterile, but some caryopses develop in some plants and these may be viable. It is intermediate between the parents, having the narrow, purple-tinged panicle of Agrostis munroana and the longer awn of Agrostis pilosula. The palea is about half as long as the lemma. The specimens available seem to corres¬pond with Agrostis royleana Trin. (Agrostis pilosula Trin. var. royleana (Trin.) Bor) but the lectotype has not yet been examined for male-sterility.

Annual or short-lived perennial, tufted. Culms loosely ascending or decumbent at base and rooting from lower nodes, 30–90 cm tall, 3- or 4-noded. Leaf sheaths glabrous; leaf blades linear, flat, 3–20 cm × 3–5 mm, both surfaces scabrid; ligule 2.5–6 mm, apex lacerate. Panicle lanceolate to ovate in outline, 10–30 cm, open or somewhat contracted; branches 2–7 at each node, 2–5 cm, scabrid, bearing branchlets mainly in distal half. Spikelets 3–4 mm, green or purple; glumes oblong-lanceolate, lower glume slightly longer than upper glume, keel conspicuously scabrid-hispidulous, apex acuminate, upper glume scabrid upward on keel, apex acute; callus hairs 0.4–0.5 mm; lemma ca. 2/3 spikelet length, back villous except below apex, awned at or near lower 1/3, apex truncate, erose; awn geniculate, 3–4 mm; palea usually ca. 1/3 length of lemma. Anthers 0.7–1.5 mm. Fl. Aug.

Tufted annual; culms (10-)35-95 cm high, erect or geniculately ascending, sometimes decumbent and rooting from the lower nodes. Leaf-blades flat, (3-) 15-35 cm long, (2-)3-6 mm wide, scabrid on both surfaces; ligule 4-6 mm long, truncate. Panicle broadly ovate to lanceolate, (5-)10-30 cm long, loose and open or ± contracted, green or suffused with purple; inflated tip of pedicel smooth or almost so. Spikelets 2.5-3.5(-4.5) mm long, breaking up at maturity above the persistent glumes; glumes acute, awnless, scabrid on the keel; lemma hairy, 2-3 mm long, acute, awned; awn 4-6 mm long, bent, twisted below and arising from near the base of the lemma; palea not more than a third the length of the lemma; anthers 1-1.5 mm long.

Qinghai, W Sichuan, Yunnan [Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka].

Distribution: Pakistan (Punjab, N.W.F.P. & Kashmir); Himalayas and Madras.

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

Grassy mountain slopes; 3600–4200 m.

Agrostis beimushanica J. L. Yang; A. ciliata Trinius (1845), not Thunberg (1784); A. eriolepis Keng ex Y. C. Yang; A. muliensis J. L. Yang; A. pilosula var. wallichiana (Steudel) Bor; A. royleana Trinius; A. wallichiana Steudel; Calamagros-tis pilosula (Trinius) J. D. Hooker; Pentatherum pilosulum (Trinius) Tzvelev.