Japan Flora: Rhizomes elongate; culms 3分-80 cm. long, rather slender, firm, long-hairy on nodes; leaf-blades flat, linear, 20-50 cm. long, 7-12 mm. wide, acuminate, gradually narrowed to a petiole­like base, scabrous; ligules truncate, very short; sheaths smooth or often long-pilose; panicles spikelike, nearly erect, silvery white, 10-20 cm. long, cylindric, the racemes less than 3 cm. long, sparsely long-hairy; spikelets lanceolate, 35-4.5 mm. long, glabrous, terete, acute, with a tuft of silvery white hairs about 12 mm. long at the base; glumes lanceolate, acuminate, membranous, few-nerved; stamens 2, 2.5-3 mm. long; stigma blackish purple, lanceolate in 이ltline. May-June, Waste grounds in lowlands; Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku, Kyushu; very common.  In temperate regions. 

f. pallida Honda. Culm-nodes gla­brous; common within our area. China, Korea, and Northeast China 

Imperata cylindrica var. major (Nees) C. E. Hubb. The tropical phase, which differs from ours in the larger panicles with smaller, narrower stigmas.