Sorghum nitidum (Vahl) Pers.

This is a distinctive species not closely related to others found in China. It is easily recognizable by its conspicuously bearded nodes and small, blackish, glossy spikelets. It occurs in both awned and awnless forms.

Perennial forming loose tufts. Culms erect, 0.6–2 m tall; nodes bearded with pale spreading hairs. Leaf sheaths glabrous or pilose; leaf blades linear, 10–40(–50) × 0.4–1 cm, glabrous to hispid, bearded at base; ligule 1–1.5 mm. Panicle lanceolate in outline, 15–30 cm, glabrous but with soft hairs at the nodes; primary branches whorled, simple, flexuous, 2–5 cm, lower part bare; racemes borne at branch ends, fragile, composed of 2–4 spikelet pairs; internodes and pedicels brown-ciliate. Sessile spikelet ovate-lanceolate, 3.5–5 mm; lower glume leathery, black-brown at maturity, glossy, glabrous below middle, upper part and margins hispid with brown hairs; upper lemma awnless or awned; awn 1–1.5 cm. Pedicelled spikelet usually staminate, elliptic, 3–3.7 mm, papery, light brown. Fl. and fr. summer–autumn. 2n = 10, 20.

Perennial, without rhizomes; culms 1-2 m high, wiry, erect, bearded at the nodes. Leaf-blades up to 60 cm long and 15 mm wide; ligule short, scarious. Panicle lanceolate, 10-30 cm long, usually lax, sometimes dense, the branches simple, filiform and consipicuously whorled; racemes borne at the tips of the branches, composed of 2-4 spikelet pairs, with rufously ciliate internodes and pedicels. Sessile spikelet narrowly ovate, 3-4.5 mm long, the callus rufously bearded; lower glume coriaceous, glossy, dark brown to black, rufously pubescent mainly above the middle; upper lemma muticous or with an awn 7-17 mm long. Pedicelled spikelet similar in size to the sessile, but papyraceous, light brown and awnless. 2n=20.

Anhui, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hainan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Shandong, Sichuan, Taiwan, Yunnan, Zhejiang [Bhutan, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Myanmar, New Guinea, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand; NE Australia, Pacific Islands].

Distribution: Pakistan (Punjab, N.W.F.P. & Kashmir); India to China and Australia.

Meadows, grassy hillsides; 300–1400 m.

Holcus nitidus Vahl., Symb. Bot. 2: 102. 1791.
Holcus fulvus R. Br. var. gennium & var. nitidus (Vahl) Honda, Bot. Mag. Tokyo 40: 101. 1926, Monogr. 331. 1930. Holcus fulvus R. Br. var. piliferus(Vahl) Honda, Bot. Mag. Tokyo 40: 102. 1926, Monogr. 332. 1930.

Holcus nitidus Vahl, Symb. Bot. 2: 102. 1791; Andro-pogon nitidus (Vahl) Kunth; A. serratus Thunberg var. nitidus (Vahl) Hackel; Holcus fulvus R. Brown; H. fulvus var. nitidus (Vahl) Honda; Sorghum fulvum (R. Brown) P. Beauvois; S. nitidum var. fulvum (R. Brown) Handel-Mazzetti.