旱茅 han mao

Andropogon delavayi Hackel in A. Candolle & C. Candolle, Monogr. Phan. 6: 404. 1889; A. bootanensis J. D. Hooker; Eremopogon delavayi (Hackel) A. Camus; Schizachyrium bootanense (J. D. Hooker) A. Camus.

Perennial from a knotty rootstock. Culms loosely tufted, erect, wiry, 40–150 cm tall, upper internodes keeled, hirsute along keel, nodes glabrous. Leaf sheaths glabrous or thinly hirsute near mouth; leaf blades linear, 20–50 × 0.2–0.5 mm, glabrous or abaxial surface hirsute, apex finely acuminate; ligule truncate, 0.5–1 mm, margin ciliolate. Raceme 1–4 cm, purplish; spatheole narrow, glabrous or sparsely hirsute; rachis internodes and pedicels filiform, ca. 2/3 length of sessile spikelet, white-ciliate. Sessile spikelet 3.6–6 mm; callus obtuse, ca. 0.5 mm; lower glume narrowly lanceolate-oblong, leathery, glossy, back convex to almost flat, minutely asperulous, 5-veined, flanks keeled and narrowly winged above middle, wings ciliolate, apex erose; upper lemma 2-lobed in upper 1/4–1/3; awn 0.6–1 cm. Pedicelled spikelet male or barren, 4–5.3 mm, elliptic-oblong, papery, flat, back 3-veined, margins keeled and ciliolate above middle, apex acute. Fl. and fr. Jun–Nov.

Dry mountainsides, dry open forests; 1200–3400 m. Guangxi, Guizhou, Hunan, Sichuan, Xizang, Yunnan [Bhutan, India (Naga Hills, Sikkim), N Myanmar, Nepal].

This grass has been placed in Eremopogon (a synonym of Di-chanthium), but differs from that genus in its keeled lower glume and the absence of homogamous spikelet pairs.