短梗苞茅 duan geng bao mao

Andropogon diplandrus Hackel, Flora 68: 123. 1855; Cymbopogon eberhardtii A. Camus; Hyparrhenia eberhardtii (A. Camus) Hitchcock.

Perennial. Culms tufted, coarse, 1–2 m tall, sometimes glaucous. Leaf sheaths glabrous; leaf blades 30–60 × 0.3–0.6 cm, glabrous or hirsute at base, margins scabrid; ligule reddish brown, ca. 2 mm. Spathate panicle loose, narrow; spatheoles narrowly lanceolate, 3–5 cm, brownish red; peduncle scarcely exserted from spatheole, glabrous or shortly bearded. Racemes 4–8-awned per pair, reflexed at maturity; raceme bases subequal, flattened, short, broadly oblong, glabrous on outer face, upper 1.5–3 mm; usually 2 pairs of homogamous spikelets at base of both lower and upper raceme of pair; homogamous spikelets scabrid-pectinate on upper keels. Sessile spikelet 6–8 mm; callus 1–1.5 mm, sharply acute, white bearded; lower glume lanceolate, glabrous or pilose; awn 2.5–4.5 cm, column with white or brown 0.2–0.5 mm hairs. Pedicelled spikelet 6–7.5 mm, acute or tipped with a mucro up to 1.5 mm. Fl. and fr. Aug–Nov.

Hill slopes, thickets; 100–200 m. Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan, Yunnan [Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam; tropical Africa].

This species can be recognized by its short, flat raceme bases and the pectinately margined homogamous spikelets, which form an involucre at the base of the raceme pair.