异穗楔颖草 yi sui xie ying cao

Lophopogon intermedium A. Camus, Bull. Mus. Natl. Hist. Nat. 25: 285. 1919; Apocopis heterogamus Keng & S. L. Chen; A. tridentatus Bentham var. intermedius (A. Camus) Roberty; A. wrightii Munro var. macranthus S. L. Chen; Sclerandrium intermedium (A. Camus) C. E. Hubbard.

Perennial, shortly rhizomatous. Culms erect, ca. 50 cm tall, 7–9-noded. Leaf sheaths glabrous to hirsute; leaf blades linear-lanceolate, 6–15 × 0.3–0.5 cm, uppermost very reduced, tuberculate-pilose when young, or sometimes densely hispid; ligule ca. 1.5 mm. Racemes 2, 2–4 cm, lowermost spikelets barren, awnless; rachis internodes 2.5–3 mm, loosely ciliate with yellowish brown soft hairs. Sessile spikelet 6–9 mm; callus hairs yellowish brown; lower glume oblong, firmly herbaceous, glabrous or hispid, greenish yellow with a scarious brown or red band across apex, veins green, straight, terminating below apex, with transverse veinlets, apex truncate, ciliate; florets longer than lower glume, exserted apices red; lower lemma oblong-lanceolate; upper floret usually barren, lemma linear-lanceolate, apex entire or 2-toothed, awned; awn geniculate, 2–3 cm. Anthers 4–5 mm. Pedicelled spikelet developed, ca. 5 mm; glumes pilose, lower glume narrowly oblong-lanceolate, apex obtuse, upper floret female, lemma awned; awn 2–3 cm. Fl. and fr. autumn.

Streams, valleys, roadsides. Guangdong, S Yunnan, Zhejiang [Thailand, N Vietnam].

This species is anomalous in Apocopis in possessing a developed pedicelled spikelet, which is female with the stigmas often exserted and visible. This is typical of the related genus Germainia, but that has a tough rachis with the fertile pedicelled spikelets falling from the raceme. In A. intermedius the base of the pedicel is fused to the margin of the lower glume of the sessile spikelet, as is usual in Apocopis, and it appears to be very close to A. wrightii.