Japan Flora: Stout perennials; culms decumbent and branching at base, 30-50 cm. long; leaf-blades crowded at the nodes, coriaceous, subulate-linear, 5-20 cm. long, 2.5-3 mm. wide, glabrous, spine- pointed, terete with a groove above, smooth but scabrous on margin, pale green, often glaucous; ligules very short, densely white-hairy; sheaths often crowded and overlapping, glabrous, at first ciliate; staminate inflorescence 4-8 cm. across; racemes many, ending in a spine; staminate spikelets alternate on upper half o£ the raceme, 8-12 mm. long, the glumes herbaceous, nerved, acuminate; pistillate spikelets single, near the base of long spinelike branches of the inflorescence; glumes many­nerved; fertile lemma rather coriaceous, broadly lanceolate, about 10 mm. long, slightly shorter than the sterile lemma, acuminate, glabrous, few-nerved only in upper part. July-Aug. Sandy seashores.

Kyushu (Yakushima and Tanega- shima); very rare. Ryukyus, Formosa, s. China, Malaysia, and India.