Siberian Wild Rye

Culms usually erect, sometimes slightly decumbent at base, 60–90 cm tall. Leaf sheath glabrous; leaf blade flat, 10–15 × 0.5–1 cm, glabrous or adaxial surface slightly pubescent. Spike pendulous, lax, 15–20 cm; rachis margin scabrous, ciliolate. Spikelets glaucous or purplish glaucous, usually 2 per node, with (3 or)4 or 5 florets. Glumes narrowly lanceolate, 4–5 mm, 3–5-veined, glabrous, scabrous along veins, apex acuminate or with awn ca. 4 mm. Lemma lanceolate, 5-veined, obscurely so at base, scabrous or puberulent; first lemma 8–11 mm; awn 15–20 mm. Palea equaling lemma, ciliolate along keels, puberulent between keels. Fl. and fr. Jun–Aug. 2n = 28*, 42*.

N.E. Europe, C. Asia, Himalaya, N. Asia, China, Japan.

Gansu, Hebei, Heilongjiang, Henan, Nei Mongol, Ningxia, Qinghai, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Sichuan, Xinjiang, Xizang, Yunnan [India, Japan, Korea, Mongolia, Nepal, Russia].

3350-4100 m

Forest glades, scrub, swales, sands and pebbles in river valleys; 1500–4900 m.

Clinelymus sibiricus (Linnaeus) Nevski; C. yubaridakensis Honda; Elymus sibiricus var. brachstachys Keng; E. sibiricus var. gracilis L. B. Cai; E. sibiricus var. erectiusculus L. B. Cai; E. yubaridakensis (Honda) Ohwi; Hordeum sibiricum (Linnaeus) Schenck (1907), not Link ex Steudel (1840), nor Roshevitz (1929); Triticum arktasianum F. Hermann.

Perennials, Terrestrial, not aquatic, Stems nodes swollen or brittle, Stems erect or ascending, Stems caespitose, tufted, or clustered, Stems terete, round in cross section, or polygonal, Stem internodes hollow, Stems with inflorescence less than 1 m tall, Stems, culms, or scapes exceeding basal leaves, Leaves mostly cauline, Leaves conspicuously 2-ranked, distichous, Leaves sheathing at base, Leaf sheath mostly open, or loose, Leaf sheath smooth, glabrous, Leaf sheath hairy, hispid or prickly, Leaf sheath and blade differentiated, Leaf blades linear, Leaf blade auriculate, Leaf blades 2-10 mm wide, Leaf blades 1-2 cm wide, Leaf blades mostly flat, Leaf blade margins folded, involute, or conduplicate, Leaf blades mostly glabrous, Leaf blades more or less hairy, Leaf blades scabrous, roughened, or wrinkled, Ligule present, Ligule an unfringed eciliate membrane, Inflorescence terminal, Inflorescence simple spikes, Inflorescence a dense slender spike-like panicle or raceme, branches contracted, Inflorescence solitary, with 1 spike, fascicle, glomerule, head, or cluster per stem or culm, Inflorescence single raceme, fascicle or spike, Inflorescence spikelets arranged in a terminal bilateral spike, Flowers bisexual, Spikelets pedicellate, Spikelets sessile or subsessile, Spikelets laterally compressed, Spikelet less than 3 mm wide, Spikelets with 2 florets, Spikelets with 3-7 florets, Spikelets paired at rachis nodes, Spikelets all alike and fertille, Spikelets bisexual, Spikelets disarticulating above the glumes, glumes persistent, Spikelets disarticulating beneath or between the florets, Rachilla or pedicel hairy, Rach illa or pedicel glabrous, Glumes present, empty bracts, Glumes 2 clearly present, Glumes equal or subequal, Glumes shorter than adjacent lemma, Glumes equal to or longer than adjacent lemma, Glumes awned, awn 1-5 mm or longer, Glumes 3 nerved, Glumes 4-7 nerved, Lemmas thin, chartaceous, hyaline, cartilaginous, or membranous, Lemma similar in texture to glumes, Lemma 5-7 nerved, Lemma glabrous, Lemma body or surface hairy, Lemma apex acute or acuminate, Lemma distinctly awned, more than 2-3 mm, Lemma with 1 awn, Lemma awn 1-2 cm long, Lemma awned from tip, Lemma margins thin, lying flat, Lemma straight, Palea present, well developed, Palea membranous, hyaline, Palea about equal to lemma, Palea longer than lemma, Stamens 3, Styles 2-fid, deeply 2-branched, Stigmas 2, Fruit - caryopsis, Caryopsis ellipsoid, longitudinally grooved, hilum long-linear, Caryopsis hairy at apex.