Saccharum rufipilum Steud.

This species can be recognized by its elongate, narrow panicle of small, pointed, long-awned spikelets sunk among copious long hairs. Some specimens from Yunnan appear to have only one anther.

A striking species with a narrow silky cream or reddish panicle.

Perennial, tussocky. Culms up to 3.5 m tall, 0.3–0.7 mm in diam., nodes bearded, silky villous below panicle. Leaf sheaths longer than internodes, smooth, margin and mouth hairy; leaf blades flat or involute, tough, 20–60 × 0.5–1.5 cm, glabrous, abaxial surface farinose, narrowed to base, apex acuminate; ligule 1–3 mm, ciliate. Panicle narrowly oblong in outline, very dense, 18–45 cm, cream or pinkish with long hairs obscuring the spikelets, unbranched or shortly branched at base, axis villous; racemes 2–4(–9) cm; rachis internodes 1.5–2.5 mm, villous. Spikelets 2.5–3.5 mm; callus hairs ca. 3 times spikelet length; lower glume lanceolate, thinly cartilaginous, dark brown at maturity, back subglabrous, margins shortly ciliate or occasionally with longer hairs, apex palely membranous, sharply acuminate; lower lemma slightly longer than glumes, apex attenuate, sometimes awnlike; upper lemma linear-lanceolate, entire, awned; awn 1–1.5 cm. Anthers (1–)3, 1–1.5 mm. Fl. and fr. Jun–Oct. 2n = 20.

Stout perennial with hard woody base; culms up to 3.5 m high. Leaf-blades up to 60 cm long, 3-20 mm wide, flat or convolute. Panicle 15-40 cm long, the peduncle appressed silky vinous; racemes 2.5-5 cm long, borne directly on the main axis of the panicle or sometimes, in the lower part of the inflorescence, borne along short primary panicle branches, the internodes and pedicels hirsute with long hairs. Spikelets all alike, 2.5-3.5 mm long, the callus bearded with cream or usually reddish silky hairs up to 10 mm long, concealing the spikelets; glumes equal, membranous, shortly ciliate on the margins, the lower also sparsely hairy on the back; lower lemma lanceolate, shortly ciliate on the margins below; upper lemma very narrow, entire, awned at the tip with an awn up to 20 mm or more long.

Gansu, Guizhou, Henan, Hubei, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Xizang, Yunnan [Bhutan, N India, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan].

Distribution: Pakistan (N.W.FP. & Kashmir); Northwest Himalayas eastwards to Assam and Burma.

Fl. & Fr. Per.: July-September.

Dry grassy and rocky hillsides; 1300–2600 m.

Erianthus fulvus Nees ex Hackel (1889), not (Bory) Kunth (1829); E. lancangensis Y. Y. Qian; E. pallens Hackel; E. rufipilus (Steudel) Grisebach; Miscanthus rufipilus (Steudel) Grassl.