两耳草 liang er cao

Perennial with long stolons. Culms in small tufts along the stolons, compressed, nearly solid, 30–60 cm tall. Leaf sheaths keeled, glabrous or pilose along upper margins and mouth, a line of hairs abaxially at junction with blade; leaf blades lanceolate-linear, thin, 5–20 × 0.5–1 cm, glabrous or papillose-pilose along margins, apex acute. Inflorescence digitate; racemes 2, divaricate, very slender, 6–12 cm; spikelets single, in 2 rows; rachis 0.5–1 mm wide. Spikelets pale yellowish, ovate to suborbicular, 1.5–1.8 mm, abruptly acute; upper glume hyaline, 2-veined with the veins marginal, ciliate along margins with long silky hairs; lower lemma similar but not ciliate; upper lemma pallid at maturity, ovate, as long as spikelet, crustaceous, obscurely striate. Fl. and fr. May–Sep. 2n = 40, 80.

Open places in forests, forest margins, mostly on moist soils, sometimes forming a sward. Fujian, Guangxi, Hainan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Yunnan [tropics and subtropics throughout the world].

This is a distinctive species, easily recognized by the combination of a stoloniferous habit and an inflorescence composed of a pair of widely spreading racemes with small, pale, fringed spikelets.