台湾雀稗 tai wan que bai

Paspalum formosanum Honda.

Perennial. Culms tufted, slender, 20–40 cm tall, pilose-tomentose on nodes and below inflorescence. Leaf sheaths compressed, hirsute; leaf blades lanceolate, 5–18 × 0.3–0.5 cm, both surfaces densely hirsute, apex acuminate; ligule ca. 2 mm. Racemes 2–4, 2–3 cm; spikelets single, in 2 rows; rachis flattened, winged, ca. 1.5 mm wide; pedicels pilose with soft white hairs. Spikelets broadly elliptic, 2–2.3 mm, usually glabrous, subacute; upper glume membranous, 3–5-veined, occasionally minutely pubescent on margins; lower lemma 5–7-veined, glabrous, subacute; upper lemma brown, as long as spikelet, cartilaginous, finely punctulate-striate, obtuse. Fl. and fr. May–Oct.

* Hill slopes. Guangdong, Guangxi, Taiwan.

Paspalum hirsutum is a local segregate from the P. scrobiculatum complex distinguished by its slender facies coupled with hirsute leaves, and particularly by its hairy nodes, culm apex, and pedicels. The hirsute leaves are very similar to those of P. thunbergii, but that species has puberulous spikelets and a pallid fertile floret.

This species may have a wider distribution if specimens from SE Asia referred to Paspalum scrobiculatum var. horneri (Henrard) Koning & Sosef are conspecific.