茅叶荩草 mao ye jin cao

Andropogon prionodes Steudel, Syn. Pl. Glumac. 1: 383. 1854, based on A. serrulatus A. Richard, Tent. Fl. Abyss. 2: 458. 1850, not Link (1827); Arthraxon lanceolatus (Roxburgh) Hochstetter var. glabratus S. L. Chen & Y. X. Jin; A. pilo-phorus B. S. Sun.

Perennial, loosely tufted, base knotty, covered in silky-tomentose scales. Culms stiff, erect or straggling, 40–60 cm long. Leaf sheaths glabrous or tuberculate-hispid; leaf blades lanceolate to narrowly ovate, tough, glaucous, 2–7 cm × 5–15 mm, usually glabrous, base rounded, margins cartilaginous and pectinate-setose from stout tubercles, apex setaceously acuminate; ligule 0.5–1 mm. Racemes 2–11, 2–7 cm, pale green or tinged purple, suberect; rachis internodes 1/3–2/3 length of sessile spikelets, pilose, hairs increasing to 2–3 mm at apex. Sessile spikelet 5.8–7.2 mm; lower glume linear, strongly convex, laterally keeled, margins inflexed, back obscurely veined below middle, glabrous or puberulous, rarely shortly pubescent, 5 scaberulous veins between keels toward apex, keels stoutly tuberculate-spinose, a second row of smaller tubercles on inner side of keels; upper lemma subentire to shortly denticulate, teeth 0.1–0.4 mm; awn 10–15 mm; palea absent. Anthers 3, 2.4–3.8 mm. Pedicelled spikelet narrowly lanceolate, 4–5 mm, staminate. Fl. and fr. Jul–Oct. 2n = 16, 36.

Rocky mountain slopes, streamsides, roadsides. Anhui, Beijing, Guizhou, Henan, Hubei, Jiangsu, Shaanxi, Shandong, Sichuan, Xizang, Yunnan, Zhejiang [Afghanistan, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Pakistan, Thailand, Vietnam; E Africa, SW Asia].

Arthraxon prionodes has often been confused with A. lanceolatus (Roxburgh) Hochstetter, from the hills of S India. The latter species differs in its slightly broader, linear-lanceolate sessile glume with a flat back between the tuberculate lateral keels and obvious, raised intercarinal veins clearly visible from the glume base upward.

Occasionally the sessile glume is shortly pubescent, and the name Arthraxon pilophorus is based on such a plant. The name A. lanceolatus var. raizadae (Jain et al.) Welzen has been misapplied in China to this variant. It correctly applies to a low annual from peninsular India with long (6–7 mm), velutinous sessile spikelets.