12. Scleria ciliaris Nees in Wight, Contr. Bot. India. 117. 1834.
华珍珠茅 hua zhen zhu mao
Scleria chinensis Kunth.
Perennials. Rhizomes woody, covered with purple to purplish brown scales. Culms tufted, 70-120 cm tall, ca. 5 mm wide, 3-angled, slightly scabrous, glabrous. Leaf sheath 1-10 cm, papery, glabrous; sheaths at culm base brown to purplish brown, not winged, with 3 narrowly ovoid teeth of various sizes at opening; sheaths at middle part of culm green, wing 1-3 mm wide; contraligule brown to reddish brown, lanceolate to oblong-lanceolate, 4-12 mm (fragile tip sometimes broken off), glabrous, margin sometimes apically purple; leaf blade linear, 15-35 cm × 6-9 mm, papery, slightly scabrous, glabrous. Involucral bracts leaflike, basalmost to 20 cm, sheathing; bractlets setaceous, base auriculate and hispid. Inflorescences paniculate, with 1-3 slightly distant lateral branches; branches 6-10 × 2-6 cm, slightly condensed. Spikelets brown to purple, (1 or)2-4 in a cluster, ca. 4 mm, mostly unisexual. Male spikelets oblong-ovoid; glumes 3-4 mm, membranous, margin sometimes ciliate; basal glumes keeled, apex aristate to apiculate. Female spikelets usually growing at base of branch, narrowly ovoid; glumes broadly ovate to ovate-lanceolate, keeled, apex aristate to apiculate. Male flowers: stamens 3. Female flowers: ovary pubescent; stigmas 3. Disk yellow, 1.6-2 mm in diam., with dense rust-colored lines, 3-lobed; lobes nearly semicircular, margin reflexed, apex rounded. Nutlet white, subspherical, ca. 2.5 mm in diam., slightly 3-sided, slightly reticulately pitted, slightly stellate pubescent. Fl. and fr. Dec-Apr.
Valleys, forests, grasslands; (below 100-)300-900 m. Guangdong, Hainan [Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam; tropical Australia, Pacific islands].