Rottboellia striata Nees ex Steud.

Perennial, coarse. Culms robust, 1.5–3 m tall, glabrous or densely pilose. Leaf sheaths glabrous or tuberculate-hispid, upper sheaths spathiform; leaf blades linear-lanceolate, 30–60(–120) × 1–3(–5) cm, glabrous to densely pilose, margins stiffly ciliate, apex acuminate; ligule 2–3 mm, glabrous or ciliolate. Inflorescence large, loose and spreading, 2–3-noded spathate branches bearing the racemes arising from the upper leaf axils; racemes cylindrical, long pedunculate; rachis internodes strongly clavate, striate, glabrous. Sessile spikelet 4–4.2 mm; lower glume narrowly ovate, slightly asymmetrical, with 5–7 deep slits interrupted by tubercles especially in lower part, or sometimes smooth, contracted to an acute winged apex; upper glume keeled; lower floret usually barren, lemma ca. 4 mm, palea slightly shorter; upper floret as long as lower lemma. Pedicelled spikelet reduced or rudimentary, ca. 1.5 mm; pedicel flattened, narrowly oblong with 2 submarginal green veins, glabrous, free. Fl. and fr. Jul–Oct.

India, Nepal, Assam, S.E. Asia.

S Yunnan [India, Myanmar, Thailand].

500-1400 m

Hillside grasslands, thickets, forest margins; below 1300 m.