光穗筒轴茅 guang sui tong zhou mao

Mnesithea laevispica (Keng) de Koning & Sosef.

Annual. Culms slender, up to 1 m tall, 3–5 mm in diam., usually geniculate at base and rooting at lower nodes. Leaf sheaths smooth or papillate; leaf blades linear-lanceolate, flaccid, 15–40 × 0.8–1.6 cm, glabrous, midrib white, margins scabrid, apex acuminate; ligule a ciliate membrane, 0.5–1 mm. Racemes dull greenish brown, up to 20 × 0.3–0.5 cm, terminating in a tail of reduced spikelets; rachis internodes 9–10 mm, rounded on back, equaling or slightly longer than sessile spikelet and adjacent pedicel. Sessile spikelet dull green, 7–10 mm; lower glume oblong-lanceolate, smooth on back, keels scaberulous above middle and narrowly winged at apex; lower lemma as long as upper lemma. Pedicelled spikelet usually reduced to two 1–3.5 mm glumes. Fl. and fr. Jul–Oct.

* Shaded forests on mountain slopes. Anhui, Jiangsu.