Notes:
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grass; Notes: Tall, tufted, perennial grass, up to 1 m and taller when in flower. Culms erect, basally slightly geniculate, sturdy, terete, reel-like, pale to yellow-green but occasionally purple-dotted, nodes deep purple, with dense, long, white, straight indumentum especially at nodes, unbranched. Leaf blade lanceolate, 20-25 cm x 8-12 mm, broadest in middle tapering gradually to apex, base narrowed slightly, auriculate, midvein prominent, expanded margin white, thickened, ciliate, otherwise fresh green, appearing tender and soft, somewhat scabrous to the touch, veins of both surfaces with dense, long, white, straight, bulbous-based hairs, intercostally glabrous, collar brown, membranous, bearing conspicuous long, white indumentum. Ligule a dense fringe of longish, straight, white hairs. Leaf sheath overlapping only near base, loosely circumculmate, keeled, imbricate only near base, green becoming straw-coloured, densely pubescent. 10 cm long, persistent. Inflorescence an open panicle, ovate in broad outline, 20-25 x 7-12 cm; peduncle basally subtended by upper leaf. Secondary axis basally whorled otherwise alternate along main axis, point of junction with velutinous indumentum, acutely ascending and never spreading, slender, sinuate, glabrous. Spikelets paired, erect, minutely ovoid, 2.4-3 x 1-1.5 mm, apex aristate. Glumes pale green to purple-tinted, membranous, densely pubescent; lower glume length of spikelet, deep purple. Awnless. Stigma branches apically exerted. |