扁穗草 bian sui cao

Ehrharta caudata Munro in A. Gray, Mem. Amer. Acad. Arts, n.s., 6: 420. 1859.

Perennial with slender rhizomes, basal sheaths becoming fibrous. Culms loosely tufted, erect, 50–70 cm tall, 3–5-noded. Leaf sheaths pubescent with retrorse hairs, upper sheaths shorter than internodes; leaf blades flat or margins involute, thin, 20–30 × 0.3–1 cm, abaxial surface glabrous, adaxial surface pubes-cent or glabrous, slightly narrowed to base, tapering to acuminate apex; ligule 0.2–0.6 mm, thick. Raceme 6–22 cm; spikelets 13–20, distant, divaricate becoming pendulous; axis 4-angled; pedicels 2–7 mm, bent at base, spinulose. Spikelets 1–1.4 cm, greenish; lower glume 5–6 mm, 3-veined, upper glume 6–7.5 mm, 5-veined; sterile lemmas 1–1.4 cm; fertile lemma 1–1.2 cm, narrowly winged along upper keel; awn 0.9–1.5 cm; palea shorter than lemma, membranous, ciliolate along keels. Anthers ca. 4 mm. Fl. and fr. summer. 2n = 40.

Forest glades; below 3000 m. Jilin (Changbai Shan), Sichuan [Japan, Russia (Far East)].