Polypogon fugax Nees ex Steud.

This is a very common grass growing on the plain and lowland regions in Taiwan.

The names Polypogon littoralis Smith and P. lutosus (Poiret) Hitchcock have both been misapplied to this species. They are in fact synonyms of ×Agropogon lutosus.

Usually in wet ground beside lakes and streams or in marshes. Of little value for fodder. 600-2400 m.

Annuals; culms tufted, geniculate, 4-5-noded; 20-60 cm tall, 1 mm in diameter. Blades linear,5-15 cm long, 3-7 mm wide; ligule 3-6 mm long, apex fringed. Panicle oblong. Spikelets 1-flowered, oblong-elliptical, 2-2.5 mm long; glumes subequal, lance-oblong, membranous, scabrous, rounded on back, apex sinus; awn arising between the lobes, 1.5-2 mm long, slender, straight. Lemma 0.8-1 mm long, elliptic, apex subobtuse, toothed, the midnerve projecting beyond the lemma in a short awn. Palea slight ly shorter than the lemma, apex toothed. Anthers 0.5 mm long. Caryopsis eliptic, 1 mm long.

Annual, tufted. Culms geniculate, sometimes trailing and rooting at lower nodes, 10–75 cm tall. Leaf blades linear or broadly linear, 2.5–15 cm, 3–10 mm wide, scabrid or adaxial surface smooth, apex acute; ligule 3–8 mm. Panicle densely cylindrical, slightly lobed, or looser and narrowly ovate, 4–15 cm, pale green or flushed purple; branches narrowly ascending, up to 4 cm, bearing densely clustered spikelets. Spikelets narrowly oblong, 2–2.5 mm; glumes narrowly oblong, puberulous, vein scabrid-aculeate, margins shortly ciliate in lower half, apex emarginate, awned from sinus; awn shorter than or up to 1.5 times as long as glume body; lemma elliptic, 1–1.2 mm, apex slightly 4-toothed, midvein extended into a fine, straight, ca. 2 mm awn; palea as long as lemma. Stamens 3, anthers ca. 0.7 mm. Caryopsis elliptic, ca. 1 mm. Fl. and fr. Apr–Sep.

Annual; crams 15-60 cm high, often decumbent at the base and rooting from the lower nodes. Leaf-blades 2-16 cm long, 2-11 mm wide, rough; ligule 2-8 mm long. Panicle narrowly ovate, oblong or cylindrical, usually lobed, 3-15 cm long, 05-5 cm wide, dense but hardly bristly, pale green or yellowish. Spikelets 1.8-2.4 mm long; glumes slightly notched at the apex, rough with minute points especially in the lower part, minutely hairy on the margins, with a fine straight awn 0.6-3 mm long; lemma about half the length of the glumes, smooth, awnless or with an awn up to 2 mm long.

Himalaya, Assam, China, Korea, Japan.

Distributed in Japan, Korea, China, India and Africa.

Anhui, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Henan, Hubei, Jiangsu, Shaanxi, Shandong, Shanxi, Sichuan, Taiwan, Xinjiang, Xizang, Yunnan, Zhejiang [Bhutan, N India, Japan, Kazakhstan, Korea, Kyrgyzstan, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan; SW Asia; introduced elsewhere].

Distribution: Pakistan (Baluchistan, Punjab, N WFP. & Kashmir); Iraq eastwards to Burma, mainly in the Himalayas.

1500-3600 m

Fl. & Fr. Per.: May-August.

Moist places, near farmlands; 100–3600 m.

Nowodworskya fugax (Nees ex Steudel) Nevski; Poly-pogon demissus Steudel; P. higegaweri Steudel; P. littoralis var. higegaweri (Steudel) J. D. Hooker.

Annuals, Aquatic, leaves emergent, Terrestrial, not aquatic, Stems nodes swollen or brittle, Stems erect or ascending, Stems geniculate, decumbent, or lax, sometimes rooting at nodes, Stems solitary, Stems caespitose, tufted, or clustered, Stems terete, round in cross section, or polygonal, Stem internodes hollow, Stems with inflorescence less than 1 m tall, Stems, culms, or scapes exceeding basal leaves, Leaves mostly basal, below middle of stem, Leaves mostly cauline, Leaves conspicuously 2-ran ked, distichous, Leaves sheathing at base, Leaf sheath mostly open, or loose, Leaf sheath smooth, glabrous, Leaf sheath and blade differentiated, Leaf blades linear, Leaf blades very narrow or filiform, less than 2 mm wide, Leaf blades 2-10 mm wide, Leaf blades mostly flat, Leaf blade margins folded, involute, or conduplicate, Leaf blades mostly glabrous, Leaf blades scabrous, roughened, or wrinkled, Ligule present, Ligule an unfringed eciliate membrane, Inflorescence terminal, Inflorescence a dense slender spike-like panicle or raceme, branches contracted, Inflorescence solitary, with 1 spike, fascicle, glomerule, head, or cluster per stem or culm, Inflorescence spike linear or cylindric, several times longer than wide, Inflorescence single raceme, fascicle or spike, Flowers bisexual, Spikelets pedicellate, Spikelets laterally compressed, Spikelet less than 3 mm wide, Spikelets with 1 fertile floret, Spikelets solitary at rachis nodes, Spikelets all alike and fertille, S pikelets bisexual, Spikelets disarticulating below the glumes, Spikelets falling with parts of disarticulating rachis or pedicel, Rachilla or pedicel glabrous, Glumes present, empty bracts, Glumes 2 clearly present, Glumes equal or subequal, Glumes equal to or longer than adjacent lemma, Glume equal to or longer than spikelet, Glumes awned, awn 1-5 mm or longer, Glumes keeled or winged, Glumes 1 nerved, Glumes prominently lobed, Lemmas thin, chartaceous, hyaline, cartilaginous, or membranous, Lemma 5-7 nerved, Lemma glabrous, Lemma apex dentate, 3-5 fid, Lemma mucronate, very shortly beaked or awned, less than 1-2 mm, Lemma distinctly awned, more than 2-3 mm, Lemma with 1 awn, Lemma awn less than 1 cm long, Lemma awn from sinus of bifid apex, Lemma awns straight or curved to base, Lemma margins thin, lying flat, Lemma straight, Palea present, well developed, Palea membranous, hyaline, Palea about equal to lemma, Palea 2 nerved or 2 keeled, Stamens 3, Styles 2-fid, deeply 2-b ranched, Stigmas 2, Fruit - caryopsis.