密穗空轴茅 mi sui kong zhou mao

Rottboellia striata Nees ex Steudel subsp. khasiana Hackel in A. Candolle & C. Candolle, Monogr. Phan. 6: 302. 1889; Coelorachis khasiana (Hackel) Stapf ex Bor.

Perennial, coarse. Culms robust, 2–3 m tall, glabrous, much branched upward. Leaf sheaths glabrous, upper sheaths with very reduced blade; leaf blades narrowly lanceolate, 40–100(–130) × 2–3(–4) cm, glabrous or scattered tuberculate-pilose on upper surface, apex setaceously acuminate; ligule 2–3 mm, glabrous. Inflorescence large, composed of fascicles of many racemes on spathate branches from the upper leaf axils; racemes cylindrical, long pedunculate; rachis internodes clavate, glabrous. Sessile spikelet 3.5–4 mm; lower glume lanceolate-oblong, smooth or with 2–5 shallow tuberculate grooves, contracted to an apiculate, broadly winged apex; upper glume ca. 3.5 mm, keeled; lower floret barren, lemma ca. 3 mm; upper floret lemma ca. 3 mm, palea shorter. Pedicelled spikelet variable, usually more than 2 mm, sometimes as long as and resembling sessile spikelet; pedicel flattened, oblong with 2 submarginal green veins, glabrous, adnate to adjacent rachis internode except toward apex. Fl. and fr. Jul–Oct.

Open woodlands, damp places; 900–1300 m. SW Yunnan [NE India, Myanmar].