毛鸭嘴草 mao ya zui cao

Rottboellia anthephoroides Steudel, Flora 29: 22. 1846 ["antephoroides"]; Andropogon anthephoroides (Steudel) Steudel; A. anthephoroides var. eriostachyus (Hackel) Honda; Ischaemum eriostachyum Hackel.

Perennial. Culms loosely tufted, geniculately ascending to shortly decumbent and rooting at lowest nodes, 30–70 cm tall, branching in lower part, nodes bearded. Leaf sheaths loose, villous; leaf blades linear-lanceolate, 5–20 × 0.3–0.9 cm, villous, margins thickened, smooth, base constricted, apex acuminate; ligule 1–3 mm. Racemes terminal, paired, appressed back to back, 5–8 cm, long exserted; rachis internodes and pedicels stoutly cuneate, triquetrous, villous. Sessile spikelet broadly oblong or obovate, 8–10 × 2.5–3.5 mm; lower glume leathery toward base, flanks rounded in lower 1/3, villous with stiff ca. 3 mm hairs, papyraceous and puberulous above, keeled and winged above middle, wings ca. 0.8 mm wide with ciliolate margin, apex truncate-denticulate; upper glume keeled and winged above middle, villous on midline below wing; awn of upper lemma weakly geniculate, up to 1.5 cm. Pedicelled spikelet laterally compressed, otherwise resembling sessile, awnless. Fl. and fr. Jun–Sep.

Sand dunes, sandy slopes, near the sea. Hebei, Shandong, Zhejiang (Dachen Dao) [Japan, Korea].

This species occupies a similar seashore habitat to Ischaemum muticum, but has a much more limited, more northerly distribution. It is a much hairier species, with exserted racemes of larger spikelets, and lacks the widely spreading, scaly rhizomes of I. muticum.