亨利马唐 heng li ma tang

Digitaria sasakii (Honda) Tuyama; Panicum henryi (Rendle) Makino & Nemoto; Syntherisma henryi (Rendle) Newbold; S. sasakii Honda.

Perennial. Culms tufted, slender, prostrate, often rooting at lower nodes, 20–50 cm tall. Leaf sheaths glabrous; leaf blades narrowly lanceolate, 3–8 × 0.2–0.5 cm, glabrous or sparingly hispid near base, apex acute; ligule 1–2 mm. Inflorescence subdigitate, axis short; racemes 3–9, erect and clustered, never divergent, 4–8 cm; spikelets paired; rachis flat, winged ca. 0.5 mm broad, margins scaberulous. Spikelets lanceolate, 2.2–2.8 mm, acuminate; lower glume ca. 0.2 mm; upper glume lanceolate, 1/2 as long as spikelet, 3-veined, pilose; lower lemma slightly longer than upper lemma, 7-veined with broader intervein spaces flanking the midvein, pilose along lateral intervein spaces and margins; upper lemma yellowish green to gray, apex acute. Fl. and fr. summer–autumn. 2n = 36.

Sandy seashores, grasslands near the sea. Anhui, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan, Shanghai, Taiwan [S Japan, Vietnam; naturalized in Hawaii].

The spikelets of Digitaria henryi resemble those of D. ciliaris, to which it is closely related, but D. henryi is a rather smaller, more slender plant of different habit, most obviously distinguishable by its cluster of erect racemes.