Panicum sarmentosum Roxb.

Perennials; culm branching, woody, scandent, 1-1.5 m long. Blade linear-lanceolate, 8-20 cm long, 8-15 mm wide, base abruptly narrowed; sheath shorter than internode; ligule a ring of tawny hairs, scarcely over 1 mm long. Panicle open, 10-15 cm long, axis hairy, branches terete, sometimes viscid. Spikelets ovoid, ca. 2 mm long, obtuse or subacute, glabrous or with a few short hairs near tip of glumes and sterile lower lemma; lower glume 2/3-4/5 length of spikelet, actue, 3-veined; upper glume and lower lemma equal, 5-veined; lower lemma with a lower palea of ca. 1/3 length of lower lemma; upper lemma smooth, shiny, ridged abaxially, brown at maturity, apex bent forward.

Perennial. Culms rambling or climbing, up to 15 m long, branched, glabrous to puberulous or hispid, terete, solid. Leaves cauline; leaf sheaths striate, puberulous; ligule ca. 0.5 mm, a ciliolate membrane; leaf blades narrowly lanceolate, 10–35 × 1–3 cm, puberulous, margins scabrid, base abruptly narrowed, apex acuminate. Panicle oblong to ovate in outline, 15–30 cm, axis glabrous or pilose, much branched; branches viscid or smooth. Spikelets ovate, 1.5–2 mm, sparsely puberulous to glabrous; lower glume ovate, 2/3–3/4 length of spikelet, 3–5-veined; upper glume as long as spikelet, 5-veined; lower lemma similar to upper glume, palea well developed; upper floret as long as spikelet, pale brown, smooth, shiny, apex apiculate.

India, Myanmar, Indochina, Malesia, Australia and southern China. Taiwan, common at low elevations. It grows on forest margins and forms large areas, straggling over other plants.

Forest shade. Hainan, Taiwan [India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, New Guinea, Philippines, Thailand; Australia].

Panicum incomtum Trin., Gram. Panic. 200. 1826; Hsu, Fl. Taiwan 5: 572. 1978.