Microstegium falconeri - Himalayan Browntop Grass

Himalayan Browntop Grass is an annual clustered grass with stems prostrate, weak, 15-25 cm long, without nodal roots. Sheaths are hairless, outer margin hairless, oral hairs scanty. Ligule absent. Blades lanceshaped, 1-4 cm by 3-7 mm, firm, base narrowed to slightly rounded, pseudoleaf-stalk absent, margins smooth, tip pointed, densely hairy on both sides, without tubercle-based hairs. Flowers are borne in panicles 2-4 cm long. Racemes are solitary, rising up, straight, 2-4 cm long. Rachis tenacious, flattened, margins hairless, internodes long, slender, 5-8 mm long. Stalkless spikelets are oblong to lanceshaped, 3-5 mm long, callus hairless or finely velvet-hairy. Lower glume oblong to lanceshaped, leathery, midrib hairless, dorsally flat, smooth, hairless, margins hairless, tip notched. Upper glume elliptic, back pointed, hairless, midrib hairless, tip entire, pointed, muticous. Lower florets absent. Upper lemma oblong, about 1.2 mm long, veined, hairless, awn from a sinus, geniculate, column straight or slightly twisted, 4-8 mm long. Upper palea absent or minute. Anthers 3, 1.2-1.5 mm long. Flower-stalks are linear, flattened, 1.5-4 mm long, margins hairless. Stalked spikelets are nearly equal to the stalkless ones. Himalayan Browntop Grass is found in the Himalayas, on mossy rocks, at altitudes of about 2000 m.