Schizachyrium fragile (R. Br.) A. Camus

This species is similar to Schizachyrium exile (Hochstetter) Pilger, from India and Africa, which is another slender annual with reddish racemes and conspicuous, contrasting, white hairs. However, S. exile has rachis internodes villous on the back and glabrous near the apex, and the lower glume of the sessile spikelet is wingless. The dense beard curling across the rachis internode from one side to the other in S. fragile is curious and quite distinctive.

Annual. Culms tufted, wiry, erect or geniculate, 15–60 cm tall, sparingly branched, glabrous. Leaves mainly basal; leaf sheaths lightly keeled, glabrous or a few hairs at mouth; leaf blades linear, usually folded, 4–8 × 0.1–0.2 cm, glabrous, apex acute or subacute; ligule 0.2–0.5 mm. Raceme 4–8 cm, enclosed at base by spatheole; rachis internodes and pedicels columnar, broadened distally, slightly shorter than sessile spikelet, a dense band of white ca. 3 mm hairs from lower part of one margin slanting obliquely across upper part of internode, then transversely across apex to top of other margin, pedicel often similarly obliquely bearded. Sessile spikelet 6–7 mm; lower glume linear-lanceolate, 2-keeled throughout, subleathery and white-villous below middle, membranous and glabrous above, keels winged for most of length but broadest on membranous part, apex narrow, keels minutely extended; upper lemma 2-lobed to near base; awn 1–1.5 cm. Pedicelled spikelet reduced to 1 or 2 glumes, 1.5–3.5 mm, ciliate on both margins, lower glume with ca. 3 mm awn. Fl. and fr. Aug–Dec.

S Anhui, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Hunan, Jiangxi, Taiwan [Indonesia; Australia, Pacific Islands].

Hillsides; below 1000 m.

Andropogon fragilis R. Brown, Prodr. 202. 1810; A. brevifolius Swartz var. fragilis (R. Brown) Hackel; A. fragilis var. sinensis Rendle; A. obliquiberbis Hackel; Schizachyrium fragile var. sinense (Rendle) Jansen; S. obliquiberbe (Hackel) A. Camus; Eulalia simplex Hosokawa.

Annuals, Terrestrial, not aquatic, Stems trailing, spreading or prostrate, Stems nodes swollen or brittle, Stems mat or turf forming, Stems terete, round in cross section, or polygonal, Stem internodes solid or spongy, Stems with inflorescence less than 1 m tall, Stems with inflorescence 2-6 m tall, Stems, culms, or scapes exceeding basal leaves, Leaves mostly basal, below middle of stem, Leaves mostly cauline, Leaves conspicuously 2-ranked, 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 2-10 mm wide, Leaf blades mostly flat, Leaf blades mostly glabrous, Ligule present, Ligule a fringed, ciliate, or lobed membrane, Inflorescence terminal, Inflorescence solitary, with 1 spike, fascicle, glomerule, head, or cluster per stem or culm, Inflorescence a panicle with narrowly racemose or spicate branches, Inflorescence single raceme, fascicle or spike, Flowers bisexual, Spikelets pedicellate, Spikelets sessile or subsessile, Spikelets laterally compressed, Inflorescence or spikelets partially hidden in leaf sheaths, subtended by spatheole, Spikelet less than 3 mm wide, Spikelets with 1 fertile floret, Spikelets with 2 florets, Spikelets paired at rachis nodes, Spikelets in paired units, 1 sessile, 1 pedicellate, Pedicellate spikelet rudimentary or absent, usually sterile, Spikelets bisexual, Inflorescence disarticulating between nodes or joints of rachis, rachis fragmenting, Spikelets disarticulating below the glumes, Spikelets falling with parts of disarticulating rachis or pedicel, Spikelets conspicuously hairy , Glumes present, empty bracts, Glumes 2 clearly present, Glumes equal or subequal, Glumes equal to or longer than adjacent lemma, Glumes keeled or winged, Glume surface hairy, villous or pilose, Lemmas thin, chartaceous, hyaline, cartilaginous, or membranous, Lemma 1 nerved, Lemma 3 nerved, Lemma glabrous, Lemma apex dentate, 2-fid, Lemma distinctly awned, more than 2-3 mm, Lemma with 1 awn, Lemma awn less than 1 cm long, Lemma awn 1-2 cm long, Lemma awn from sinus of bifid apex, Lemma awn twisted, spirally coiled at base, like a corkscrew, Lemma awn once geniculate, bent once, Lemma margins thin, lying flat, Lemma straight, Callus or base of lemma evidently hairy, Callus hairs shorter than lemma, Stamens 3, Styles 2-fid, deeply 2-branched, Stigmas 2, Fruit - caryopsis.

Schizachyrium fragile là một loài thực vật có hoa trong họ Hòa thảo. Loài này được (R.Br.) A.Camus miêu tả khoa học đầu tiên năm 1924.