Luzon Panicgrass

Annuals; culm tufted, to 60 cm high, nodes and peduncle of inflorescence tubercled stiff hairy. Blade linear-lanceolate, 5-12 cm long, 3-8 mm wide, base rounded, sparingly tubercled hairy; ligule short, upper margin tipped with long soft hairs of ca. 2 mm long; sheath covered with tubercled bristles, loose and swollen especially at lower ones. Spikelets 2-2.5 mm long, elliptic, purplish; lower glume broadly ovate mucronate at apex, 5-7-veined, tessellate-veiend, ca. 1/2 as long as spikelet, clasping base of spikelet; upper glume elliptic-ovate, 9-11-veined, palea membranaceous, as long as lemma; upper flort elliptic, ca. 1.7 mm long, obtuse, smooth, coriaceous. India, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Indochina, Malesia and northern Australia. Taiwan, at low elevation in open areas, roadsides, waste places and grassland, limited to the southern part of the island.

Annual, tufted, hispid. Culms erect or geniculately ascending, 30–150 cm tall, nodes bearded. Leaves cauline; leaf sheaths loose; leaf blades linear to linear-lanceolate, flat, 5–20(–40) × 0.5–1.5 cm, base cordate, margins scabrid, apex acute; ligule ciliate. Panicles terminal and axillary, ovate to oblong in outline, 10–30(–50) cm, moderately branched with the spikelets evenly spread throughout the panicle, branches scabrid. Spikelets elliptic to obovate, somewhat plump, 2–2.5 mm, glabrous; lower glume broadly ovate, 1/3–1/2 length of spikelet, 5–7-veined, acute, separated by an internode; upper glume ovate, as long as spikelet, 9–11-veined, transverse veins present, acute; lower lemma similar to upper glume, palea well developed but floret barren; upper floret elliptic, yellow, smooth, shiny. Fl. and fr. Aug–Oct. 2n = 18.

Fields, forest margins. Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan, Taiwan, Yunnan [India, Indonesia, Myanmar, Philippines, Sri Lanka; Australia].

Panicum cambogiense Balansa, J. Bot. (Morot) 4: 142. 1890; Hsu, Fl. Taiwan 5: 572. 1978.

Panicum cambogiense Balansa; P. cruciabile Chase.