白健秆 bai jian gan

Pollinia pallens Hackel in A. Candolle & C. Candolle, Monogr. Phan. 6: 156. 1889.

Perennial, densely tufted from a short rhizome; basal sheaths glabrous. Culms hard, 0.4–1 m tall, 1.5–2.5 mm in diam., glabrous. Leaf sheaths glabrous, lower longer and upper shorter than internodes; leaf blades tough, narrow, involute, pale green, lower 25–40 × 0.2–0.3 cm (when flattened), abaxial surface smooth, glabrous, adaxial surface strongly ribbed, hirsute, margin scabrid; ligule very short, densely ciliolate. Racemes 3–11, subdigitate, 6–13 cm, hairs white; rachis internodes and pedicels 1/2–3/4 spikelet length, ciliate. Sessile spikelet 3.5–4.5 mm, pallid; callus hairs 1/8 spikelet length; lower glume oblong-lanceolate, membranous, back slightly concave, villous except near apex, veinless between keels, upper keels smooth or pectinate-scabrid, apex narrowly truncate or 2-toothed; upper glume apex with 2–2.5 mm awn; upper lemma narrow, 2-toothed in upper 1/4; awn ca. 1 cm, column ciliolate. Anthers purplish black, 1.8–2 mm. Fl. and fr. Oct–Nov.

Grassy places. NW Guangxi, S and W Guizhou, Sichuan, Yunnan [NE India].

This is a distinctive species, clearly differing from others in China by its tough, inrolled leaf blades and awned upper glume. The blackish anthers are striking among the white raceme hairs.