大油芒屬

Spodiopogon tainanensis leaf cs section Credit: cs kuoh

Perennials; with rhizome or stolon, culins large, erect. Blades linear or narrowly lanceolate; ligule membranous, usually brownish. Inflorescence an open panicle, each branch with 1-3-racemes, pedicelled; rachis easily articulating; spikelets paired, the one sessile and the other pedicelled, the sessile one falling off together with the rachis-joint, in the pedicelled one only the spikelet falling off; spikelets ovate, not compressed. Lower glume nearly without a keel; upper glume 2-keeled, both glumes coriaceous, nerved, acute; lower lemma membranous, usually paleate and staminate; upper lemma similar to the lower, bisexual, the stamens. Caryopsis with a large embryo.

About ten species distributed in Asia.

One species with various forms are found in the exposed mountain areas; this species may have some food value, and in fact is utilized by the mountain tribes of Taiwan.

Lower Taxon

• Spodiopogon tainanensis Hayata