淡竹叶 dan zhu ye

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*.

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)].

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.