Relatives
Leymus angustus (Trin.) Pilger Narrow-spiked Lyme-grass.
Taxonomic position.
Family Poaceae Benth. genus Leymus Hochst.Morphology and biology.
Perennial grass. Cespitose glaucous-green tall (up to 100 cm) plants with numerous radical convolute, less often flat leaves, more or less scabrous above. Stems firm, glabrous, smooth, slightly scabrous only under spike. Spikes 8-25(30) cm long, narrow, straight, with adpressed spikelets arranged by 2-3 on spike shoulders. Margins of lower parts of glumes overlapping each other and the base of lower floret in spikelet, glumes lanceolate, oblique, gradually narrowed into cusp, glabrous or slightly scabrous, subequal to spikelet in length. Lemma 7-10(12) mm long, sparsely covered with short rather rigid hairs, shortly sharpened at apex. Palea with dense short spinules or hairs at keel. Flowers in June - July. Anemophilous. 2n=28, 42, 56, 84.Distribution.
West Siberia, Tyva, Central Asia; West China (Dzungaria) and Mongolia (west).Ecology.
In desert and saz (moist) steppes, subsaline meadows, in valleys of steppe rivers and lakes on sands and shingles, in Caragana thickets.Use and economic value.
Forage grass.References:
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).