垂序香茅 chui xu xiang mao

Andropogon pendulus Nees ex Steudel, Syn. Pl. Glumac. 1: 388. 1854.

Perennial from short rhizome. Culms tufted, robust, up to 3 m tall, 8–12 mm in diam., nodes glabrous. Leaf sheaths glabrous, auricles to 3 mm at mouth; leaf blades linear, glaucous, up to 100 × 0.7–1.5 cm, glabrous, margins scabrid, base gradually narrowed, apex filiform; ligule ca. 2 mm. Spathate compound panicle rather lax, decompound, yellowish tinged pale red, up to 1 m, branches drooping, clusters of racemes dense; spatheoles pale reddish brown, 2–3 cm; racemes 1.5–2.2 cm; rachis internodes and pedicels densely ciliate; pedicel of homogamous pair not swollen. Sessile spikelet narrowly oblong, 5–6 × 1–1.4 mm; lower glume concave in lower 2/3, not wrinkled, sharply 2-keeled throughout, keels narrowly winged above middle, wings 0.15–0.35 mm, obscurely 2–4-veined between keels toward apex, midvein often absent; upper lemma awned; awn 1–1.7 cm. Pedicelled spikelet 5–6 mm.

Stream banks. Yunnan [Bhutan, NE India, Nepal].

This species has a lemon scent. Outside China it occurs on dry, grassy hillsides below 2000 m. It intergrades with Cymbopogon flexuo-sus and C. khasianus, but can usually be recognized by the relatively long, narrow, channeled lower glume of the sessile spikelet.