Puccinellia minuta Bor

So far this dwarf species is known only from the type.

Perennial, small, densely tufted. Culms 3–8 cm tall, glabrous. Leaf sheaths clustered at base; ligule ca. 1 mm; leaf blades conduplicate or inrolled, 1–2 cm, 0.6–1.2 mm wide, margins scabrid. Panicle contracted to spikelike, erect, ca. 2 × 0.5 cm; branches 2 or 3 per node, ca. 0.5 cm, ascending, smooth; spikelets ca. 3.5 mm, purple tinged, florets 2 or 3; glumes keeled, shortly acuminate, lower glume ca. 0.8 mm, upper glume ca. 1.2 mm, 1-veined; lemmas lanceolate, 2.2–2.3(–2.4) mm, glabrous, apex slightly acuminate; anthers 0.6–0.8 mm. Fl. Jun–Jul.

Small tufted perennial; culms up to 5 cm high, erect. Leaf-blades convolute, 0.5-1.5 cm long, c. 1 mm wide, green, faintly scaberulous above. Panicle contracted, 1-2 cm long, the branches smooth, short and ascending. Spikelets 3-4 mm long, 2-3-flowered, green, variegated with purple; glumes elliptic or oblong, blunt, the lower 0.75-1 mm long, 1-nerved, the upper 1-1.5 mm long, 1-nerved; lemmas 2.2-2.5 mm long, elliptic-oblong, minutely emarginate, glabrous, the mid-nerve reaching the tip and excurrent as a very short mucro; palea keels scabrid above, smooth below; anthers 0.75-1 mm long.

Qinghai, Xizang [Pakistan].

Distribution: Pakistan (N.W.F.P.), endemic.

Alpine sandy lake shores, saline meadows; 4000–5100 m.

?Puccinellia platyglumis L. Liu.