青香茅 qing xiang mao

Perennial. Culms densely tufted, wiry, 30–80 cm tall. Leaf sheaths glabrous; leaf blades linear, glaucous, 10–25 × 0.2–0.6 cm, glabrous, base narrowly rounded, apex filiform; ligule 0.7–3 mm. Spathate compound panicle narrow, 10–30 cm, spathes densely clustered; spatheoles reddish brown, 1.4–2 cm; racemes reddish brown, 0.7–1.4 cm; rachis internodes and pedicels ca. 1.5 mm, ciliate on margins; pedicel of homogamous pair linear to columnar, not or only very slightly swollen, not fused to internode. Sessile spikelet oblanceolate, 3–4.3 mm; lower glume flat, deeply grooved below middle (appearing as a line or keel on inside), keels broadly winged above middle, veinless or obscurely 2-veined between keels; upper lemma deeply 2-lobed; awn 1.1–1.5 cm. Pedicelled spikelet 3–4 mm. Fl. and fr. Jul–Sep.

Roadsides, hill slopes. Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hainan, Hunan, Sichuan, Yunnan, Zhejiang [Laos, Thailand, Vietnam].

Cymbopogon mekongensis is very close to C. caesius (Nees ex Hooker & Arnott) Stapf, which occurs down the eastern side of Africa through Arabia to Pakistan and in S India and Sri Lanka. Cymbopogon caesius differs by the markedly swollen, barrel-shaped pedicel of the homogamous spikelet pair, which is fused to the swollen adjacent internode. It also tends to have greenish yellow rather than reddish inflorescences.