Pacific Island Silvergrass

This is a very common tall reed familiar to the local peoples for its beautiful inflorescence in the autumn and economic importance; it grows abundantly on the plains and is cultivated as a windbeak between the fields, used as hedges, and for ornamental purposes. Cattle feed on this grass in time of need, and it is a good fodder grass.

The plants are cultivated for hedges and as ornamentals, the rhizomes are used for medicine, the culms are used for papermaking, and the young leaves are used for forage.

Perennials; rhizomes well developed, bamboo-like; nodes~ usually farinose. Ligules about 2 mm long, rounded, ciliate. Inflorescence a large panicle, 30-50 cm long, the main axis at least 2/3 as long as the panicle, the branches 10-20 cm long. Spikelets in pairs, all alike, unequally pedicelled along a slender continuous rachis; spikelets about 3 mm long; lower glume as long as the spikelet, minutelv 2-toothed, 3-nerved; upper glume slightly smaller than the lower, margins ciliate, hyaline; lower lemma a little shorter than the glumes, hyaline; upper lemma smaller than the sterile lemma, 1-nerved, extending into a delicate bent, flexuous awn; palea minute, hyaline; anther 3, 1-1.3 mm long.

Plant tufted, robust. Culms erect, 1.5–4 m tall, 6–15 mm in diam., unbranched, nodes usually glabrous, or uppermost sometimes bearded. Leaves cauline, congested; leaf sheaths longer than internodes, overlapping, glabrous, pilose at throat; leaf blades linear, flat, tough, 20–85 × 0.5–4 cm, glabrous, midrib prominent, margins scabrid, base rounded, apex acuminate; ligule 1–3 mm, densely pilose on back. Panicle oblong or elliptic, dense, 20–50 cm; axis 25–45 cm. Racemes numerous, 10–30 cm, appressed or ascending, glabrous, scaberulous; rachis internodes puberulous, nodes glabrous; lower pedicel 1–3.5 mm, upper pedicel 2.5–8 mm. Spikelets 2.5–4(–6) mm, awned; callus hairs 4–6 mm, white, spreading, as long as the spikelet; glumes subequal, membranous, golden brown, 2.5–4(–6) mm, margins pilose near apex, veins obscure, apex acuminate; lower lemma lanceolate, hyaline, 3–3.5 mm, veinless, pilose; upper lemma similar to lower, 2–2.5 mm; awn geniculate, 5–6(–10) mm; upper palea a small hyaline scale. Anthers 3, 1–1.5 mm. Caryopsis oblong, ca. 1.5 mm.

Distributed in the Far East to Polynesia.

Slopes, valleys, grassy places. Anhui, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hainan, Henan, Hubei, Jiangsu, Sichuan, Taiwan, Yunnan, Zhejiang [SE Asia].

Saccharum floridulum Labill, Sert. Austro-Caled, 13. pl. 18. 1824.
Miscanthus japonicus Anderss. in Oefv. Sv. Vet. Akad. Forth. Stockh. 12: 166. 1855; Honda, Monogr. 148. 1930.
Miscanthus formosanus A. Camus, Bull. Mus. Hist. Nat. Paris 30: 514. 1924.

Saccharum floridulum Labillardière, Sert. Austro-Caledon. 13: t. 18. 1824; Eulalia japonica Trinius; Miscanthus japonicus (Trinius) Andersson.