Saccharum procerum Roxb.

This very large and ornamental species is used for forage and fiber. It intergrades with Saccharum arundinaceum, but tends to have more widely spaced spikelet pairs and lacks a definite awnlet on the upper lemma.

Perennial, forming large clumps. Culms very robust, up to 7 m tall, glabrous. Leaf sheaths glabrous except at mouth and margins; leaf blades 60–150 × 2–5 cm, abaxial surface glabrous, adaxial surface velvety with long soft hairs on broad lower midvein, midrib white, thick, margins coarsely serrate, base narrow, apex long attenuate; ligule less than 1 mm. Panicle 30–80 cm, much branched, axis glabrous; racemes 4–5 cm; rachis internodes 6–7 mm, pilose with long silky hairs. Spikelets 3–4.3 mm, straw-colored or tinged purplish; callus hairs 1–2.5 mm, shorter than spikelet; lower glume thinly cartilaginous, back pilose with long silky hairs 2–3 times spikelet length, keels smooth, apex cuspidate; upper glume glabrous in sessile spikelet, pilose in pedicelled spikelet; lower lemma subequal to glumes; upper lemma lanceolate-oblong, apex apiculate, awnless. Lodicules glabrous. Anthers 3, ca. 1.6 mm.

Himalaya (Nepal, Sikkim), Manipur.

Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hubei, Hunan, Xizang, Yunnan [Bangladesh, NE India, Myanmar, Nepal, Thailand].

100 m

Streams, valley bottoms; below 1500 m.

Erianthus procerus (Roxburgh) Raizada; Ripidium proce-rum (Roxburgh) Grassl.