红健秆 hong jian gan

Perennial; basal sheaths glabrous. Culms ca. 1 m tall, ca. 4 mm in diam., pilose below inflorescence. Leaf sheaths longer than internodes, usually glabrous; leaf blades linear, hard, 15–30 × 0.3–0.4 cm, but uppermost less than 1 cm and basal longer than 40 cm, abaxial surface glabrous, adaxial surface pilose, margins scabrid; ligule ca. 0.5 mm. Inflorescence composed of 7–9 racemes on a ca. 5 cm axis, hairs white; rachis internodes and pedicels 2–3 mm, villous. Sessile spikelet ca. 4 mm, yellowish brown; callus hairs ca. 1 mm; lower glume oblong-lanceolate, membranous, lower back slightly concave, with ca. 4 mm soft hairs below middle, veinless between keels, margins ciliate, apex subhyaline, acute; upper lemma elliptic, very shortly 2-toothed; awn 5–8 mm, weakly geniculate. Anthers ca. 2 mm. Fl. and fr. autumn.

* Mountain slopes; ca. 800 m. Guangxi, Guizhou, Yunnan (Jinghong).

This species is very close to Eulalia fastigiata (Nees ex Steudel) Stapf ex Bor from Bhutan, NE India, and Nepal, but differs in the racemes being inserted singly or in pairs, rather than in whorls. These two species, and the related Saccharum formosanum, lie on the boundary between Saccharum and Eulalia. The presence of a central inflorescence axis, thin glumes, scarcely toothed upper lemma, and weak awn are all characters more typical of Saccharum.