Microstegium fauriei (Hayata) Honda

Endemic, at medium altitudes in Taiwan.

Culm geniculate, about 1.5 mm across. Blade 3-5 cm long by 3.5-4 mm wide, covered with tubercle hairs; sheath pubescent; ligule fimbriate on the upper back, about 0.4 mm long. Racemes 4, subdigitately arranged, about 8 cm long. Spikelets paired, monomorphic; rachis-joint longer than the lower spikelet; the upper pedicellate, the lower sessile, about 4 mm long. Lower glume subcoriaceous as long as the spikelet, 2-keeled, furrowed on back, ciliate on keels, shortly 2-toothed; upper glume lanceolate, 1-keeled, keel ciliate, margins inrolled, fimbriate, apex ending into a short awn; upper lemma 1 mm long, hyaline, 2-cleft, fimbriate along margins, with an awn of about 23 mm long, arising from the sinus; upper palea membranous, about 1.5 mm long, with a sinus of the apex; anther about 1.6 mm long.

Annual. Culms decumbent, rooting at lower nodes, up to 50–100 cm, nodes glabrous or pubescent. Leaf sheaths glabrous or pubescent; leaf blades narrowly lanceolate, 5–20 × 0.3–1 cm, thinly pilose to tomentose, apex acuminate; ligule ca. 2 mm. Racemes 3–10, spreading, 4–10 cm; rachis internodes filiform, glabrous or lower edges sparsely ciliate, equaling or slightly longer than spikelet. Spikelets 4–5.5 mm; callus shortly bearded; lower glume lanceolate, back shallowly concave, obscurely 2-veined between keels, glabrous, keels stoutly pectinate-ciliate, apex shortly 2-toothed; upper glume hispid on keel, apex attenuate into 1(–3) mm awnlet; lower floret absent; upper lemma ca. 1 mm, hyaline, minutely 2-toothed; awn fine, flexuous, 2–2.5 cm, apex hairlike; upper palea ca. 1.5 mm, irregularly toothed. Anthers 3, 1.5–1.8 mm. Fl. and fr. Aug–Oct.

Montane forests and forest margins, moist places on pathsides, clearings, streams, forming colonies; middle elevations. Fujian, Guangdong, Taiwan [Indonesia, Malaysia].

Pollinia fauriei Hayata, Icon. Pl. Formos. 7: 73. 1918.