毛穗苞茅 mao sui bao mao

Andropogon filipendulus Hochstetter var. pilosus Hochstetter, Flora 29: 115. 1846.

Perennial. Culms loosely tufted, slender, 1–2 m tall, branching. Leaf sheaths glabrous; leaf blades tough, 15–40 × 0.3–0.6 cm, glabrous, margins scabrid; ligule ca. 2 mm. Spathate panicle with many slender spatheoles in crowded fascicles from each spathe; spatheoles very narrowly linear, 4–6 × 0.1–0.3 cm, becoming reddish; peduncle filiform, flexuously exserted near spatheole tip, glabrous or thinly white bearded. Racemes 2(–4)-awned per pair, awns often twisted together, not reflexed at maturity; raceme bases very unequal, glabrous, the upper filiform, 5–8 mm; 1 pair of homogamous spikelets at base of lower raceme, 2 pairs at base of upper raceme. Sessile spikelet oblong-lanceolate, 5–6 mm; callus pungent, 2–3 mm, white bearded; lower glume linear-oblong, pubescent to villous with white hairs; awn 3–5 cm, the column hirsute with brown 0.7–1.2 mm hairs. Pedicelled spikelet 5–6.5 mm, tipped with a 1–5 mm bristle. Fl. and fr. Jul–Dec.

Hill slopes, grassy places, thickets; 900–1600 m. Yunnan [Indonesia, New Guinea, Philippines, Sri Lanka; Africa, Australia].

Hyparrhenia filipendula may be recognized by the combination of a slender, delicate habit, 2-awned raceme pairs, an elongate, filiform upper raceme base bearing 2 homogamous spikelet pairs, a pungent callus, and a hirsute awn.

Hyparrhenia filipendula var. filipendula is distinguished by the glabrous lower glume of the sessile spikelet. In Africa both varieties are common and may grow together, but in Asia nearly all specimens belong to var. pilosa.