Chrysopogon aciculatus (Retz.) Trin.

It is one of the best soil and water conservation grasses occuring on the river banks and on exposed slopes.

Rarely, racemes of this species may have one or more spikelet pairs below the triad.

This is a ground-cover grass used for erosion control and lawns. It sometimes becomes a noxious weed. The needle-sharp callus on the diaspore can injure cattle and other animals, catching in fur and then penetrating the skin.

Rhaphis aciculatus (Retz.) Honda in Bot. Mag. Tokyo 40 103. 1926, Monogr. 335. 1930; Pilger in Engl., Pflanzcnf. ed. 2. 14e: 153. 1940. Perennials; culms rhizomatous and stoloniferous, long creeping, flowering culms erect. Ligule short, about 0.5 mm long. Inflorescence a panicle, 5-10 cm long, purplish, lower branches whorled; pedicelled spikelets about 6 mm long. Spikelets in threes, one sessile and perfect, the other 2 pedicellate and sterile. Sessile spikelets terete, lanceolate, about 4 mm long with a sharp, elongated callus of about 5 mm long; glume coriaceous, equal, as long as the spikelet; lower glume lanceolate, 7-nerved, upper half 2-keeled, hispidulous; lower part rounded on the back and glabrous; upper glume boat-shaped, slightly keeled and hispidulous near the apex, with a short straight awn, margins ciliate; upper lemma 1-nerved, with an awn of about 6 mm long; palea obtuse, 1/2 as long as the lemma; anthers about 1.3 mm long.

Perennial with extensively creeping rhizomes, sward forming; rhizomes stout, close-noded. Culms decumbent at base or ascending, 20–50 cm tall. Leaf sheaths glabrous or ciliate at mouth; leaf blades broadly linear, 3–5 × 0.4–0.6 cm, glabrous or adaxial surface pilose near base, margins serrate, apex subacute; ligule 0.1–0.3 mm. Panicle dense, oblong in outline, 5–9 cm, purplish brown; branches erect when dry, 1.5–3 cm, tipped by a single triad. Sessile spikelet 3.5–4 mm; callus acicular, 4–6 mm, bearded with golden hairs, obliquely attached to branch apex; glumes leathery; lower glume lanceolate, 2-keeled upward, lower back smooth, glabrous, upper back thinner, keels hispidulous, apex acute to 2-toothed; upper glume setulose on upper keel, acuminate or mucronate, mucro 1–2 mm; upper lemma entire, awned; awn straight, 4–7 mm. Pedicelled spikelet staminate, 4–5.7 mm; lower glume acuminate or with mucro to 1 mm. Pedicel 3/4 length of sessile spikelet, glabrous. Fl. and fr. Jun–Oct. 2n = 20.

Tropical Asia, Nepal, India, Ceylon, Burma, Indo-China, China, Malaysia, Polynesia, Australia.

Widely distributed in the tropics of Asia in hills and plains. An extremely common grass in village pastures on the plains where the prostrate creeping stems resist overgrazing.

Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hainan, Taiwan, Yunnan [Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam; Australia, Pacific Islands (Polynesia)].

150-1700 m

Dry open grasslands, waste ground, lawns; 500–1000 m.

Andropogon aciculatus Retz., Obs. 5: 22. 1789.

Andropogon aciculatus Retzius, Observ. Bot. 5: 22. 1789; Centrophorum chinense Trinius.