狭叶斑茅 xia ye ban mao

Erianthus procerus (Roxburgh) Raizada; Ripidium proce-rum (Roxburgh) Grassl.

Perennial, forming large clumps. Culms very robust, up to 7 m tall, glabrous. Leaf sheaths glabrous except at mouth and margins; leaf blades 60–150 × 2–5 cm, abaxial surface glabrous, adaxial surface velvety with long soft hairs on broad lower midvein, midrib white, thick, margins coarsely serrate, base narrow, apex long attenuate; ligule less than 1 mm. Panicle 30–80 cm, much branched, axis glabrous; racemes 4–5 cm; rachis internodes 6–7 mm, pilose with long silky hairs. Spikelets 3–4.3 mm, straw-colored or tinged purplish; callus hairs 1–2.5 mm, shorter than spikelet; lower glume thinly cartilaginous, back pilose with long silky hairs 2–3 times spikelet length, keels smooth, apex cuspidate; upper glume glabrous in sessile spikelet, pilose in pedicelled spikelet; lower lemma subequal to glumes; upper lemma lanceolate-oblong, apex apiculate, awnless. Lodicules glabrous. Anthers 3, ca. 1.6 mm.

Streams, valley bottoms; below 1500 m. Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hubei, Hunan, Xizang, Yunnan [Bangladesh, NE India, Myanmar, Nepal, Thailand].

This very large and ornamental species is used for forage and fiber. It intergrades with Saccharum arundinaceum, but tends to have more widely spaced spikelet pairs and lacks a definite awnlet on the upper lemma.