Cymbopogon caesius (Hook. & Arn.) Stapf

Cymbopogon caesius is very closely related to Cymbopogon martini but differs by its wiry, less robust habit, its narrower leaf-blades rounded rather than cordate at the base, the glaucous rather than dark green upper surface of the leaves and the yellowish rather than reddish mature panicle.

Tufted perennial arising from a knotted woody rhizome; culms 30-120 cm high, wiry, straggling. Leaf-blades linear, 5-30 cm long, 1.5-8(-10) mm wide, light green to glaucous, broadest at the rounded base and tapering to a filiform tip. False panicle narrowly oblong, 5-20(-30) cm long, erect; spatheoles narrowly lanceolate, 1-2 cm long, becoming yellowish. Racemes 10-15 mm long, the lowermost intemode and pedicel connate and swollen; internodes and pedicels densely ciliate along the margins, puberulous on the back. Sessile spikelet oblong-elliptic, 3-4.5 mm long; lower glume flat in the upper half and with a deep V-shaped groove in the lower, the keels winged above; upper lemma deeply bifid, with an awn 6-15 mm long. Chromosome number, 2=20.

Distribution: Pakistan (Sind & Baluchistan); India and Sri Lanka; Arabia; eastern Africa from Sudan to South Africa.

Fl. & Fr. Per.: October-November.