茅香 mao xiang

Poa nitens Weber, Prim. Fl. Holsat., Suppl. 2, no. 6. 1787; Hierochloë bungeana Trinius; H. glabra Trinius subsp. bungeana (Trinius) Peschkova; H. odorata (Linnaeus) P. Beauvois; H. odorata f. pubescens Krylov; H. odorata subsp. pubescens (Krylov) H. Hara ex T. Koyama; Holcus odoratus Linnaeus.

Plant with slender creeping rhizomes. Culms 20–60 cm tall, 3–4-noded. Leaf sheaths glabrous or ± pubescent, longer than internodes; basal leaf blades up to 30 cm, 3–10 mm wide, culm leaves much shorter, glabrous or adaxial surface puberulous, margins scabrid, apex acuminate; ligule 2–5 mm, obtuse. Panicle pyramidal, loose, 4–10 cm; branches spreading, smooth, bare in lower half. Spikelets plumply elliptic, 3.5–6 mm, light brown, shining; glumes subequal, as long as spikelet, 1–3-veined; callus of staminate florets stiffly hairy (or glabrous in E Asia); lower florets staminate, lemmas slightly shorter than glumes, puberulous on back above middle, margins shortly ciliate, apex acute or minutely mucronate; bisexual floret ca. 3.5 mm, appressed-pubescent toward apex; palea 1-veined; anthers ca. 2.5 mm. Fl. and fr. Jun–Sep.

Mountain slopes, floodplains, wet grasslands; 500–3800 m. Gansu, Guizhou, Hebei, Heilongjiang, Henan, Nei Mongol, Ningxia, Qinghai, Shaanxi, Shandong, Shanxi, Sichuan, Xinjiang, Xizang, Yunnan [Afghanistan, Japan, Korea, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Russia; SW Asia (Caucasus), Europe, North America].

Over much of the range of this species, the callus of the staminate florets bears a circlet of short, stiff bristles. However, forms from E Asia with a glabrous callus like that of Anthoxanthum glabrum and the panicle and spikelet characters of A. nitens are difficult to place and have been assigned to both species at infraspecific rank. The names Hierochloë bungeana and H. odoratum subsp. pubescens belong here.

Unfortunately, the epithet "odorata," by which this widespread species has long been known in Hierochloë, cannot be used in Anthox-anthum because the heterotypic name A. odoratum Linnaeus already exists.

Anthoxanthum nitens is used for medicine, weaving, and soil retention.