Angleton Bluestem

This is an excellent fodder grass locally naturalized in southern Taiwan, even growing among rocks.

This species is very close to, and may simply be a variant of, Di-chanthium caricosum.

Culm geniculate, about 1 mm in diameter. Blade about 8 cm long by 3 mm wide, covered with tubercled hairs; ligule chartaceous, upper part minutely fimbriate, backside hairy, about 0.6 mm long. Inflorescence of digitate racemes, racemes about 4 cm long. Spikelets paired; the upper pedicelled; the lower sessile, about 4m long. Lower glume subcoriaceous, oblong, as long as the spikelet, 8-10- nerved, lower margins inrolled, upper part 2-keeled, densely hairy on the backside, margins ciliate; upper glume subcoriaceous, elliptical, margins inrolled and fimbriate 2-grooved on the backside, about 3.6 mm long; lemma about 3 mm long, linear, 1-nerved, with a flexuous awn arising from the tip, awn about 6 times the length of the lemma; palea hyaline, lanceolate, margins inrolled, nerveless, about 3.2 mm long, pale purple. Caryopsis oblong, about 1.8 mm long; embryo 1/2 the length of the caryopsis.

Perennial. Culms geniculate to suberect, 20–60 cm tall, nodes glabrous or pubescent. Leaf sheaths usually longer than internodes; leaf blades flat, 1.5–8(–20) × 0.3–0.6 cm, glabrous or thinly pilose on both surfaces; ligule ca. 0.6 mm, minutely fimbriate. Inflorescence terminal; peduncle softly pilose near the summit; racemes (1–)2–4, subdigitate, 2–5 cm, with 1–6 pairs of homogamous spikelets. Sessile spikelet 3–5 mm; lower glume obovate, subleathery, 8–10-veined, pubescent on lower back, slightly glossy, margins glabrous or shortly ciliate, keels often narrowly winged, apex rounded; upper glume glabrous or ciliate along margins and keel; awn 1.2–2 cm. Caryopsis ca. 1.8 mm. Pedicelled spikelet many-veined, resembling sessile. Fl. and fr. Jun–Nov. 2n = 20, 40, 60.

Distributed in India and now introduced into Australia, Africa and America.

Taiwan, Yunnan [India, Indonesia, Malaysia; introduced elsewhere].

Hill slopes; 500–1500 m.

Andropogon aristatus Poir. in Lam., Encycl. Meth. Bot. Suppl. 1: 585. 1810.

Andropogon aristatus Poiret in Lamarck, Encycl., Suppl. 1: 585. 1811; A. caricosus Linnaeus var. mollicomus (Kunth) Hackel; A. mollicomus Kunth.