Brown Bent

Foodplant / sap sucker
adult of Lopus decolor sucks sap of Agrostis vinealis
Other: major host/prey

Brown Bent is a drought-resistant grass which spreads by means of its rhizomes to form a fine, compact turf. It is often confused with Agrostis canina from which it is distinguished by the presence of rhizomes and the absence of stolons. 2300-4300 m.

Agrostis vinealis lies at the center of a complex of closely related taxa, including in China A. flaccida and A. turkestanica. Characters separating the taxa are very slight, which has led to differences in opinion as to their taxonomic status. Agrostis vinealis itself is widespread in Eurasia, but other members are usually of more restricted distribution. Agrostis trinii, based on an E Asian element with very scabrid leaf blades, has been reported from NE China. Other characters used to distinguish it are conflicting in the literature, and it seems impossible to maintain it as distinct.

Tufted perennial with creeping rhizomes; culms 10-60 cm high, erect or geniculately ascending, smooth. Leaf-blades flat or convolute, 2-15 cm long, 1-3 mm wide, rough on both surfaces or smooth beneath; ligule 1-5 mm long, acute or obtuse. Panicle lanceolate to narrowly ovate or oblong, 2-20 cm long, usually ± contracted and rather dense before and after anthesis, green purplish or brown; inflated tip of pedicel smooth or almost so. Spikelets 2-3.3 mm long, breaking up at maturity above the persistent glumes; glumes acute, awnless, rough on the keel (or the upper almost smooth); lemma 1.5-2.5 mm long, very blunt, awnless or with a fine bent awn 2-4.5 mm long arising from slightly below the middle; palea minute; anthers 1-1.5 mm long.

Perennial, tufted, shortly rhizomatous. Culms erect from a geniculate base, 30–60 cm tall, ca. 1 mm in diam., 3-noded. Leaf sheaths smooth; leaf blades narrowly linear, flat or weakly rolled, grayish green, 5–8 cm × 0.5–2 mm, scabrid; ligule 1.5–3 mm, apex obtuse. Panicle lanceolate to narrowly ovate, 7–12 cm; branches 2–5 per node, laxly ascending, slender, moderately scabrid. Spikelets 2–2.5 mm, purple; glumes oblong-lanceolate, subequal, lower slightly longer, keel scabrid or almost smooth on upper glume, apex acuminate; callus hairs ca. 0.2 mm; lemma 2/3 spikelet length, awned from slightly below middle to lower 1/3, or awnless, apex obtuse; awn geniculate, 3–3.5 mm; palea very small. Anthers 1–1.5 mm. Fl. and fr. summer and autumn.

Distribution: Pakistan (Punjab, N.W.F.P., Gilgit & Kashmir); throughout Europe and temperate Asia.

Heilongjiang, Jilin, Liaoning, Nei Mongol [Japan, Korea, Mongolia, Pakistan, Russia; America, Europe].

Fl. & Fr. Per.: July-August.

Damp grassy places; 1500–1700 m.

Agrostis canina subsp. montana (Hartman) Hartman; A. canina subsp. trinii (Turczaninow) Hultén; A. canina var. montana Hartman; A. coarctata subsp. trinii (Turczaninow) H. Scholz; A. flaccida subsp. trinii (Turczaninow) T. Koyama; A. flaccida var. trinii (Turczaninow) Ohwi; A. trinii Turczaninow; A. vinealis subsp. trinii (Turczaninow) Tzvelev.

Perennials, Terrestrial, not aquatic, Rhizomes present, Rhizome elongate, creeping, stems distant, Stems nodes swollen or brittle, Stems erect or ascending, Stems geniculate, decumbent, or lax, sometimes rooting at nodes, 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 basal, below middle of stem, Leaves conspicuously 2-ranked, distichous, Leaves sheathi ng 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 blades 2-10 mm wide, Leaf blades mostly flat, Leaf blade margins folded, involute, or conduplicate, Leaf blades mostly glabrous, Ligule present, Ligule an unfringed eciliate membrane, Inflorescence terminal, Inflorescence an open panicle, openly paniculate, branches spreading, Inflorescence a contracted panicle, narrowly paniculate, branches appressed or ascending, 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 spike linear or cylindric, several times longer than wide, Inflorescence spike ovoid, lanceolate, or oblong, not more than twice as long as wide, Inflorescence branches more than 10 to numerous, Lower panicle branches whorled, Flowers bisexual, Spikel ets laterally compressed, Spikelet less than 3 mm wide, Spikelets with 1 fertile floret, Spikelets solitary 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 glabrous, Glumes present, empty bracts, Glumes 2 clearly present, Glumes equal or subequal, Glumes equal to or longer than adjacent lemma, Glume equal to or longer than spikelet, Glumes 1 nerved, Lemmas thin, chartaceous, hyaline, cartilaginous, or membranous, Lemma 5-7 nerved, Lemma glabrous, Lemma body or surface hairy, Lemma apex truncate, rounded, or obtuse, Lemma mucronate, very shortly beaked or awned, less than 1-2 mm, Lemma distinctly awned, more than 2-3 mm, Lemma with 1 awn, Lemma awn less than 1 cm long, Lemma awn subapical or dorsal, Lemma awns straight or curved to base, Lemma margins thin, lying flat, Lemma straight, Callus or base of lemma eviden tly hairy, Callus hairs shorter than lemma, Palea present, well developed, Palea membranous, hyaline, Palea shorter than lemma, Stamens 3, Styles 2-fid, deeply 2-branched, Stigmas 2, Fruit - caryopsis, Caryopsis ellipsoid, longitudinally grooved, hilum long-linear.

Agrostis vinealis (Chinese: 芒剪股颖; pinyin: mang jian gu ying) is a species of grass known by the common names brown bentgrass and brown bent, which can be found from Russia to Mongolia, China, Pakistan, India and Alaska. It was introduced to Greenland and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands.