Miscanthus nepalensis (Trin.) Hack.

Tufted perennial with very short rhizomes; culms up to 1.5 m high. Leaf-blades flat, 30-50 cm long, 6-10 mm wide, narrowed at the base. Panicle 10-15 (-20) cm long, spreading, the axis much shorter than the racemes. Spikelets 2-2.5 (-2.8) mm long, the callus bearded with golden-brown hairs 3-4 times as long as the spikelet; lower glume brown, emarginate, hairy on the margins in the lower half with hairs of unequal length, the longest 2-3 times as long as the glume; upper lemma bidentate, with a straight or flexuous awn 9-13 mm long.

Plant tufted. Culms erect, 20–200 cm tall, 2–7 mm in diam., glabrous or pilose immediately below inflorescence, nodes glabrous. Leaves basal and cauline; leaf sheaths glabrous, striate, pilose at throat; leaf blades linear, flat or folded, 15–60 × 0.3–2.5 cm, glabrous or pilose, margins scabrid, base tapering, straight or rounded, apex acuminate; ligule 1–3 mm, ciliolate, dorsally pilose. Panicle oblong or equidimensional, 8–24 cm; axis 1.5–16 cm, glabrous. Racemes 7–80, flexuous, 8–18 cm; rachis glabrous; lower pedicel 1–2 mm, upper pedicel 2.5–5.5 mm. Spikelets 2–3 mm, golden brown, awned; callus hairs 5–11 mm, much longer than spikelet, pale to golden brown; glumes subequal or upper slightly longer, membranous, 1–5-veined; lower glume glabrous or margins sparsely pilose with 4–6 mm hairs, apex emarginate; upper glume glabrous, margins and apex hyaline, apex acute; lower lemma ovate, hyaline, 1.5–2 mm, veinless; upper lemma lanceolate, hyaline, 1.5–2 mm; awn straight or flexuous, 5–17 mm; upper palea a ca. 1 mm scale. Anthers 2, 1–1.5 mm. Caryopsis ellipsoid, ca. 1.5 mm.

Himalaya (Garhwal to Bhutan), Assam, Burma, W. China.

Distribution: Pakistan (N.W.F.P. & Kashmir); Himalayas; Khasi and Naga Hills; Burma.

Sichuan, Xizang, Yunnan [Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal; introduced in Malaysia].

1100-3000 m

Mountain slopes; 1900–2800 m.

Eulalia nepalensis Trinius, Mém. Acad. Imp. Sci. St.-Pétersbourg, Sér. 6, Sci. Math. 2: 333. 1833; Diandranthus nepalensis (Trinius) L. Liu.