Acroelytrum japonicum Steudel; Lophatherum annulatum Franchet & Savatier; L. elatum Zollinger & Moritzi; L. gracile var. elatum (Zollinger & Moritzi) Hackel; L. gracile var. pilo-sulum (Steudel) Hackel; L. humile Miquel; L. japonicum (Steudel) Steudel; L. lehmannii Nees ex Steudel; L. multiflorum Steudel; L. pilosulum Steudel; L. zeylanicum J. D. Hooker.

Culms tufted from a knotty rootstock, slender, stiffly erect, 60–150 cm tall. Leaf sheaths glabrous or pilose; leaf blades lanceolate, 5–30 × 2–5 cm, glabrous or with long hairs on both surfaces, base rounded to a 8–12 mm pseudopetiole; ligule brown, hispid on backside. Inflorescence 10–25 cm; racemes few, 5–10 cm, loosely spiculate, erect at first with appressed spikelets, later obliquely spreading and spikelets patent; pedicels short, thick. Spikelets narrowly lanceolate, subterete, 7–12 mm, base glabrous or hairy; glumes ovate, rounded on back, subleathery with membranous margins; lower glume 3–4.5 mm, 5-veined, glabrous or stiffly hairy near margins and apex; upper glume ca. 5 mm, 5–7-veined, glabrous; lemma of fertile floret oblong with straight back, not keeled, 6–7 mm; palea lanceolate, hyaline; awn of fertile and sterile lemmas 1.5–2 mm. Fl. and fr. Jun–Sep. 2n = 48*.

This species is used for medicinal purposes. The leaves are reminiscent of those of bamboos. The barbed awns catch in the fur of passing animals, effecting dispersal of the spikelet.

Shady slopes, roadsides and in moist forests. Anhui, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hainan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Sichuan, Taiwan, Yunnan, Zhejiang [Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Japan, S Korea, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, New Guinea, Philippines,

Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam; Australia (Queensland), Pacific Islands (Polynesia)].