多裔草 duo yi cao

Apluda digitata Linnaeus f., Suppl. Pl. 434. 1782 ["1781"]; Coix heteroclita Roxburgh; Polytoca bracteata R. Brown; P. heteroclita (Roxburgh) Koorders.

Perennial from short stout rhizome. Culms erect, up to 3 m tall, 4–8 mm in diam., branched, 6–10-noded, nodes densely bearded with upwardly pointing hairs. Leaf sheaths glabrous or setose with tubercle-based hairs; leaf blades cauline, up to 80 × 1–4 cm, abaxial surface glaucous, glabrous or setulose, margins serrate, apex acuminate; ligule 2–5 mm. Racemes 2–4, 4–12 cm. Female zone: sessile spikelet 8–11 mm; lower glume shortly hairy on back, longer hair tufts laterally at base of beak, beak ca. 3 mm, wings ca. 1 mm wide; lodicules absent; pedicelled spikelet 15–20 mm, asymmetrical, broadly winged on one side. Male zone: spikelets oblong-lanceolate, 8–10 mm; lower glume symmetrically winged on margins above middle, wing 0.5–1 mm wide. Fl. and fr. Jul–Sep.

Hill slopes, grasslands, roadsides. Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan, Yunnan [Cambodia, NE India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, New Guinea, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam].

The zonation of the mixed-sex racemes is obvious, with the tough, yellowish female spikelets, which often have the long stigmas exserted, located below the more slender, green male portion.