Capillipedium assimile (Steud.) A. Camus

This grass grows on hills and often appears gregariously on mountain slopes. It is said to be eaten by cattle and buffaloes but the culms eventually become very woody and are not relished. The woody culms are bamboo-like in appearance and distinguishes this species from C. parviflorum.

This grass is said to have the appearance of a small bamboo. It differs from the other common species, Capillipedium parviflorum, by its taller, woody, fasciculately branching culms, shorter leaf blades with narrowed base, smaller sessile spikelets, and pedicels ciliate along the length of both margins.

Capillipedium assimile is usually easily distinguished from Capillipedium parviflorurn by its suffruticose habit, very unequal spikelets and its tendency to bear the spikelets in short racemes rather than in triads, but introgression between the two species does occur at the tetraploid level.

Culm hard, geniculate, about 1 mm across. Blade linear-lanceolate, about 3 mm wide by 13 cm long, midrib conspicuous, hirsute, basal part covered with tubercled hairs. Inflorescence a loosely opened panicle, branches and pedicels capillary. Spikelets paired, dimorphic; the upper pedicellate; pedicel longitudinally grooved, margins ciliate; the lower sessile, fertile, about 2.6 mm long, excluding the long awn. Lower glume subcoriaceous, lanceolate, about 2.6 mm long, laterally 2-grooved, acute, upper part brownish-red, ciliated on the upper back; upper glume broadly lanceolate, as long as the lower, margins inrolled, 2-keeled, keels ciliate, backside pubescent, 5-nerved; upper lemma about 1.2 mm long, topped with an awn of 7 times the length of the lemma, 1-nerved; upper palea hyaline, ovate-lanceolate, about 0.8 mm long, rounded, sparingly ciliate.

Perennial, often straggling. Culms decumbent and rooting at base, woody, 1.5–3.5 m tall, 1.5–5 mm in diam., fastigiately branched, nodes glabrous or pubescent. Leaf sheaths glabrous, bearded at mouth; leaf blades linear-lanceolate, 6–15 × 0.3–0.6 cm, glabrous or hispidulous, base tapering, apex setaceously acuminate; ligule ca. 0.7 mm. Panicle pyramidal, 5–12 × ca. 4 cm; branches pilose in axils; racemes composed of triads, sometimes with 1 or 2 additional spikelet pairs, greenish or pinkish; rachis internodes and pedicels long ciliate. Sessile spikelet 2.1–2.9 mm; lower glume elliptic-oblong or lanceolate, back 2–5-veined, slightly convex, glossy, glabrous or hispidulous, upper margins keeled, ciliate-hispid; upper glume ciliate along margins; awn of upper lemma 0.6–1.5 cm. Pedicelled spikelet linear-lanceolate, up to twice length of sessile spikelet. Fl. and fr. Aug–Dec. 2n = 40.

Erect or straggling suffruticose perennial, often with a decumbent base; culms slender or stout, up to 3m high. Leaf-blades 6-20cm long, 3-6(-12)mm wide, often conspicuously narrowed at the base. Inflorescence 5-12cm long; racemes with 2-6 sessile spikelets, rarely reduced to a triad of 1 sessile and 2 pedicelled spikelets. Sessile spikelet narrowly oblong, 1.8-2.5(-3)mm long, scabrid or pubescent, blunt; lower glume concave or flat on the back, with 2-4 intercarinal nerves; awn 6-12mm long. Pedicelled spikelet lanceolate, 3-4.5mm long.

Himalaya (Kashmir to Sikkim), Tibet, India, Burma, Indo-China, China, Malaysia.

Distributed in India, Burma ascending in the hills to 2,000 m, extending to Thailand, China and Taiwan.

Distribution: Pakistan (N.W.F.P. & Kashmir); India, Burma and Thailand to China and Japan; Java.

600-2100 m

Streams, forests, or mountain slopes. Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hainan, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi, Shandong, Sichuan, Taiwan, Xizang, Yunnan, Zhejiang [Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Thailand, Vietnam].

Andropogon assimilis Steud. in Zoll. Syst. Verz. 58. 1854, in Syn. Pl. Glum. l: 397 1854.
Bothriochloa assimilis (Steud.) Ohwi, l. c. 11: 165. 1942.
Bothriochloa picta Ohwi, l. c. 11: 167. 1942.

Andropogon assimilis Steudel, Syn. Pl. Glumac. 1: 397. 1854; A. glaucopsis Steudel; A. subrepens Steudel; Bothrio-chloa assimilis (Steudel) Ohwi; B. picta Ohwi; Capillipedium glaucopsis (Steudel) Stapf; Dichanthium assimile (Steudel) Deshpande.