Brachyelytrum japonicum (Hack.) Matsum. ex Honda

This species is very similar to the other two species of the genus in North America, but these have wider leaf blades (0.8–2 cm wide) and a shorter lower glume (0.2–0.7 mm).

Perennial from a short knotty rhizome. Culms solitary or loosely tufted, slender, erect, 40–100 cm tall, unbranched, 6–7-noded. Leaf sheaths shorter than internodes, glabrous or puberulent; leaf blades linear-lanceolate, thin, soft, 8–15 × 0.6–0.8 cm, scabridulous or puberulous when young, margins ciliate, apex acuminate; ligule 2–5 mm, obtuse to acuminate, usually erose. Panicle narrow, 9–15 cm; branches short, suberect, capillary, scabrous, bearing a few subsessile spikelets. Spikelets 8–10 mm, gray-green; lower glume 0.4–1.5 mm; upper glume 1–4 mm, 1-veined or obscurely 3-veined at base, margins scarious; lemma narrowly lanceolate, 8–10 mm, rigid, 5-veined, scabrous on veins; awn 1.2–1.8 cm, slender, scabrous; palea 2-toothed at apex; callus ca. 0.8 mm, shortly pilose. Anthers 3.3–4.5 mm. Rachilla extension 4–7 mm. Fl. Jun–Jul.

Woodland shade. Anhui, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Yunnan, Zhejiang [Japan, Korea (Cheju Island)].

Brachyelytrum erectum var. japonicum Hackel, Bull. Herb. Boissier 7: 647. 1899; Brachyelytrum erectum subsp. japonicum (Hackel) T. Koyama & Kawano.