''Melica tangutorum'', is a species of grass found in China (

Gansu Gansu (, ; alternately romanized as Kansu) is a province in Northwest China. Its capital and largest city is Lanzhou, in the southeast part of the province. The seventh-largest administrative district by area at , Gansu lies between the Tibet ...

, Qinghai, Sichuan) and Mongolia.

Description

The species is perennial and caespitose, which is clumped as well. It culms are long while it interlodes are scabrous. The species leaf-sheaths are tubular and scabrous with one of their length being closed. It eciliate membrane is long and have a glabrous surface. They also have flat leaf-blades which are wide and have rough and scabrous surface. The

panicle A panicle is a much-branched inflorescence. (softcover ). Some authors distinguish it from a compound spike inflorescence, by requiring that the flowers (and fruit) be pedicellate (having a single stem per flower). The branches of a panicle are of ...

itself is open and linear, and is long. It is also interrupted, dense, and secund with scaberulous branches. The panicle branches are capillary and carry distant spikelets. The spikelets themselves are made out of 2–3 fertile florets are oblong and are long. Fertile spikelets are pediceled, the pedicels of which are ciliate, flexuous, hairy and are long. Florets are diminished at the apex. Its

lemma Lemma may refer to: Language and linguistics * Lemma (morphology), the canonical, dictionary or citation form of a word * Lemma (psycholinguistics), a mental abstraction of a word about to be uttered Science and mathematics * Lemma (botany), a ...

have scabrous surface and emarginated apex with fertile lemma being coriaceous, keelless, oblong, and long. Both the lower and upper glumes are elliptic, keelless, membranous, and have acute apexes. Their size is different; Lower glume is long while the upper one is long. Palea is elliptic, have scabrous surface and is 2-veined. Flowers are fleshy, oblong, truncate, have 2 lodicules, and grow together. They have 3

anther The stamen (plural ''stamina'' or ''stamens'') is the pollen-producing reproductive organ of a flower. Collectively the stamens form the androecium., p. 10 Morphology and terminology A stamen typically consists of a stalk called the filam ...

s which are long which have fruits that are

caryopses In botany, a caryopsis (plural caryopses) is a type of simple fruit—one that is monocarpellate (formed from a single carpel) and indehiscent (not opening at maturity) and resembles an achene, except that in a caryopsis the pericarp is fused ...

and have an additional pericarp with linear hilum.

Ecology

It is found on rocky mountain slopes, and gravel river banks on elevation of . It blooms from August to September.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q13932720 tangutorum Endemic flora of China Flora of Asia