小花野古草 xiao hua ye gu cao

Perennial, tufted with short scaly rhizomes. Culms 0.6–1.2(–2) m tall, 2–5 mm in diam., often branched, internodes glabrous, nodes pubescent. Leaf sheaths glabrous; leaf blades broadly linear, 10–25 cm × 4–10 mm, sparingly tuberculate-hispid on both surfaces. Panicle loosely contracted, narrowly oblong in outline, 16–32 cm; central axis and branches somewhat scabrid; branches 5–13 cm, fasciculate or whorled, spikelets solitary in upper part; pedicels glabrous. Spikelets 2–2.5 (–2.8) mm, purplish; glumes subequal, glabrous; lower glume 1.9–2.5 mm, 5-veined; upper glume as long as spikelet, 5-veined; lower floret staminate or bisexual, slightly longer than lower glume, mucronate or shortly awned; upper floret bisexual or often reduced, lemma 1.1–1.8 mm, apex awned; awn 1.3–2.8 mm, weakly geniculate with slightly twisted column; callus hairs ca. 1/3 length of lemma. Fl. and fr. Jul–Dec.

* Thickets at roadsides; 1000–1400 m. W Yunnan.

This species has remarkably small spikelets, and the sex of the two florets is variable, with the lower floret sometimes bisexual and the upper one reduced.