裂稃草 lie fu cao

Andropogon brevifolius Swartz, Prodr. 26. 1788; Pollinia brevifolia (Swartz) Sprengel.

Annual. Culms delicate, erect or trailing, 10–70 cm long, copiously branched, glabrous. Leaves cauline; leaf sheaths keeled, glabrous; leaf blades yellowish green becoming reddish brown, oblong-linear, flat or folded, 1.5–4 × (0.1–)0.2–0.7 cm, glabrous, base subrounded, apex obtuse; ligule 0.5–0.8 mm, lacerate. Raceme slender, 1–2 cm, enclosed at base by spatheole, borne along most of culm length, usually several flexuous peduncles arising from each leaf axil; rachis internodes and pedicels inflated upward, ca. 3/4 length of sessile spikelet, glabrous to villous. Sessile spikelet 2.5–4 mm; lower glume linear-lanceolate, subleathery, back flat, glabrous to thinly pilose, indistinctly 4–5-veined, flanks keeled toward apex, keels wingless, apex minutely 2-toothed; upper lemma 2-lobed to near base; awn 0.7–1 cm. Pedicelled spikelet reduced to 1 or 2 glumes, up to 0.5 mm, lower glume with 3–5 mm awn. Fl. and fr. Jul–Dec.

Open grassy banks, field margins, weedy places, sometimes gregarious; below 2000 m. Anhui, Fujian, Guangdong, Guizhou, Hainan, Hebei, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu, Shandong, Sichuan, Taiwan, Xizang, Zhejiang [Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam; Africa, America, SW Asia (Oman)].

This is a slender, weedy annual, occurring widely in warm parts of the world. The whole plant turns reddish brown at maturity. The delicate, branching habit, with very obtuse leaf blades, is distinctive.