Festuca afghanica Bor

Despite Bor’s choice of epithet for this species, the only known specimens appear to have been collected from the Pakistan end of the Kurram Valley.

Tufted perennial; culms up to 30cm high, erect or slightly geniculate at the base, slender. Leaf-blades folded-setaceous, up to 8cm long, smooth on the lower (outer) surface, glaucous, with 7 extensive strands of sclerenchyma, 1 on the keel, 1 along each margin and 1 below each of the lateral nerves; ligule c. 0.8mm long. Panicle narrowly ovate, 6-7cm long, lax, the branches spreading, smooth below, scabrid above. Spikelets 4-5-flowered, c. 7mm long, the florets rather distant; lower glume 2-2.2mm long, 1-nerved; upper glume c. 3.5mm long, 3-nerved; lemma oblong-lanceolate in side-view,44.5 mm long, scaberulous towards the tip, with an awn-point up to 0.8mm long; palea-keels scabrid in the upper third, smooth below; anthers 1.5-1.75mm long; ovary glabrous.

Distribution: endemic to the Kurram Valley.