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.