Relatives
Elymus dahuricus Turcz. ex Griseb. - Daurian Couch, Daurian Wild Rye.
Taxonomic position.
Family Poaceae Benth. genus Elymus L.Morphology and biology.
Perennial grass. Culms straight, robust, (30)50-120(140) cm tall, form loose mats. Nodes glabrous. Sheeths glabrous and smooth; leaves 3-10 mm wide, flat, less often with slightly convolute margins, green, usually glabrous and scabrous, less often with sparse hairs above. Spikes (5)7.15(19) cm long, dense, erect. Spikelets 10-15 mm long, by 2-3 in spike nodes, 3-4-flowered, greenish or purplish (but without glaucous bloom). Glumes 7-11 mm long, 3-5(7)-veined, lanceolate or linear-lanceolate, gradually sharpened, scabrous, with short awn up to 1 mm long, subequal to adjacent lemma. Rachilla scabrous. Lemma 6-9 mm long, lanceolate, at back scabrous, at apex with awn 10-15(20) mm long usually (at maturity) bent aside. Anthers 1.5-2.2 mm long. Flowers in June - August. Anemophilous. 2n=28, 42.Distribution.
European part of the former USSR (alien), West and East Siberia, Far East, Central Asia; Iran, China (Xinjiang, Tibet, Himalayas, Manchuria), Mongolia, Japan.Ecology.
In forest-steppe and steppe zone in upland meadows, meadow steppes, sometimes on stony steppe slopes, quite often thrives in fallows and at roadsides.Use and economic value.
Forage grass.References:
Kharkevich SS., ed. 1985. Vascular plants of the Soviet Far East. V.1. Leningrad: Nauka. 398 p. (In Russian).Malyshev LI., Peshkova GA., ed. 1990. Flora of Siberia. V.4. Poaceae (Gramineae). Novosibirsk: Nauka. 361 p. (In Russian).
Tzvelev NN. 1976. Grasses of the Soviet Union. Leningrad: Nauka. 788 p. (In Russian).