黑鳞珍珠茅 hei lin zhen zhu mao

Perennials, stoloniferous. Rhizomes short, woody, densely covered with purplish red oblong-ovate scales. Culms erect, 60-100 cm tall, 2-4 mm wide, 3-angled, slightly scabrous, sometimes pubescent. Leaf sheath 1-10 cm, sometimes pubescent; sheaths basal on culm purplish red to pale brown, obtusely 3-angled, with 3 triangular teeth of various sizes at opening; sheaths at middle part of culm green, sharply 3-angled, rarely narrowly winged; contraligule semicircular, with purple barbs; leaf blade linear, 4-35 cm × 4-8 mm, papery, slightly scabrous, glabrous or slightly pubescent. Involucral bracts leaflike, basalmost to 30 cm, sheathing; bractlets setaceous, base auriculate with barbate auricles. Inflorescences paniculate, 4-7 × 2-4 cm. Spikelets (1 or)2-4 in a close cluster, ca. 3 mm, mostly unisexual, rarely bisexual. Male spikelets oblong-ovoid; glumes ovate-lanceolate to oblong-lanceolate. Female spikelets usually at basal part of inflorescence branch, narrowly ovoid, with few glumes; glumes broadly ovate, triangular, or ovate-lanceolate. Male flowers: stamens 3. Female flowers: ovary villous; stigmas 3. Disk yellowish, ± 3-lobed; lobes semicircular, margin reflexed, apex rounded. Nutlet white, ovoid, ca. 2 mm in diam., reticulate, slightly rust-colored hispid, apex obtusely 3-sided. Fl. and fr. May-Jul.

Sunny slopes, valleys, scrub, roadsides, grasslands; 1400-2200 m. Chongqing, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, W Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi, Sichuan, Yunnan, S Zhejiang [India, Vietnam].