Cymbopogon pospischilii (K. Schum.) C. E. Hubb.

The longer racemes, seen in Africa, tend to be associated with a large but parallel-side, lowermost pedicel, and may indicate introgression from Cymbopogon commutatus

Perennial. Culms densely tufted, wiry, erect or geniculate, 60–100 cm tall. Leaf sheaths glabrous; leaf blades narrow, folded or involute, glaucous, 15–30 × 0.2–0.3 cm, glabrous, scabrid, apex filiform; ligule ca. 1–2 mm. Spathate panicle open, 15–25 cm, raceme pairs few; spatheoles 2–3 cm; racemes 1.5–2 cm; rachis internodes and pedicels ciliate on margins, glabrous on back; pedicel of homogamous pair not swollen, oblong, free from adjacent internode. Sessile spikelet narrowly lanceolate-oblong, 4.5–6 mm; lower glume papery, concave or almost flat below middle, keels rounded below middle, sharp and scabrid above, wingless or almost so, 3–5-veined between keels above middle; upper lemma 2-lobed; awn 1.4–1.8 cm. Pedicelled spikelet 4.5–6 mm. Fl. and fr. Jul–Dec. 2n = 20, 40.

Perennial; culms wiry, erect or ± geniculately ascending, up to 100 cm high. Leaf-blades flat or folded, 15-30 cm long, 1-4 mm wide, glaucous, narrowed at the base, attenuate to a filiform tip; basal sheaths persistent, thinly pubescent. False panicle 10-30 cm long, with few racemes, erect or nodding; spatheoles narrowly elliptic up to 3 cm long. Racemes 12-35 mm long (up to 22 mm long in Asia), lowest pedicel not swollen; internodes and pedicels ciliate along the margins, glabrous on the back. Sessile spikelet narrowly lanceolate, 4.5-7 mm long (up to 5.5 or 6 mm long in Asia); lower glume concave below the middle or sometimes ± flat; upper lemma deeply bifid, with an awn 10-20 mm long. Chromosome number, 2n=40.

Xizang, Yunnan [NW India, Nepal, Pakistan; Africa, SW Asia (S Arabia)].

Distribution: Pakistan (Sind, Punjab, N.W.F.P., Gilgit & Kashmir); Nepal and the western Himalayas; eastern Africa from Ethiopia and Somalia to the Cape.

Fl. & Fr. Per.: April (Punjab); July-August (N.W.F.P., Gilgit & Kashmir).

Mountain slopes, mixed forests, valleys; 1600–3000 m.

Andropogon pospischilii K. Schumann, Bot. Jahrb. Syst. 24: 328. 1897; A. nardus var. stracheyi J. D. Hooker; Cymbo-pogon stracheyi (J. D. Hooker) Raizada & S. K. Jain.