Cymbopogon iwarancusa (Jones ex Roxb.) Schult.

Perennial, shortly rhizomatous; old basal sheaths papery, ribbonlike, often spirally curling. Culms densely tufted, moderately robust to wiry, 0.2–1.5 cm tall, lower internodes short, crowded. Leaf sheaths smooth, glabrous, congested and overlapping at base; leaf blades glaucous, involute or flat, 20–50 × 0.1–0.5 cm, glabrous, apex filiform; ligule 0.5–4 mm. Spathate compound panicle narrow, 10–40 cm; spatheoles in dense woolly clusters, straw-colored or becoming purplish, 1–2 cm; racemes 1–1.8(–2.2) cm; rachis internodes and pedicels ca. 2 mm, densely white-villous, hairs as long as spikelets; pedicel of homogamous pair not swollen. Sessile spikelet narrowly lanceolate, 4.5–5.5 mm; lower glume thin, concave, glabrous, sharply 2-keeled, keels scabrid upward, not winged, 0(–3)-veined between keels; upper lemma 2-lobed; awn almost straight, column and limb weakly differentiated, 0.5–1 cm. Pedicelled spikelet 5–6 mm. Fl. and fr. Mar–May and Jul–Aug. 2n = 20.

Perennial; culms erect or geniculately ascending, up to 150 cm high. Leaf-blades up to 30 cm long and 5 mm wide, whitish, narrowed at the base, attenuate to a filiform tip; basal sheaths glabrous, flat or coiled; ligule 0.5-4 mm long. False panicle 15-40 cm long, erect; spatheoles lanceolate to narrowly elliptic, becoming reddish, 1.5-2.5 cm long. Racemes 13-22 mm long, lowest pedicel not swollen; internodes and pedicels densely ciliate along the margins and on the hack. Sessile spikelet lanceolate, 4.5-5.5 mm long; lower glume shallowly concave on the back; upper lemma deeply bifid, with an awn 7-10 mm long. Chromosome number, 2n = 20.

Himalaya (Nepal, Bhutan), India (except Central), Ceylon.

1600-2000 m

Mountain slopes, dry valleys. SW Sichuan, Xizang, Yunnan (Yuanmou) [Afghanistan, Bhutan, N India, Nepal, Pakistan; SW Asia (Iran, Iraq, Oman)].