Fimbristylis chalarocephala Ohwi & T. Koyama; F. fordii C. B. Clarke.

Annuals or short-lived perennials. Rhizomes absent. Culms tufted, 5-40 cm tall. Leaves slightly shorter than to equaling culm; leaf blade 1-2.5 mm wide, glabrous, midvein abaxially prominent or not, apex acuminate. Involucral bracts 2-5, leaflike, usually longer than inflorescence, ca. 1 mm wide, apex acuminate to acute. Inflorescence a simple or compound anthela. Spikelets digitately clustered or solitary, very narrowly ovoid to linear, 7-17 × ca. 2 mm. Glumes straw-yellow to greenish yellow, oblong-ovate, 2.5-5 mm, sometimes hairy, abaxially with 3 or more veins, margin hyaline, apex obtuse and mucronate or awned. Stamens usually 2 or 3. Style very long, compressed, basally slightly inflated, apically ciliate; stigmas 2. Nutlet white, very shortly stipitate, obovoid, 1-1.2 mm, biconvex, verruculose with transversely oblong reticulation. Fl. and fr. Aug-Oct.

Among rocks along streams, slopes, grassy areas; ca. 1000 m. Fujian, Guangdong, Hunan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Zhejiang [N India, Laos, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam].