Japan Flora: Tufted, stout perennial 30-80 cm. high; culms erect, densely white-pubescent in upper part; leaf-blades 30-60 cm. long, 5-8 mm. wide, gradually acuminate, glaucous and scabrous above, often loosely con­volute, long-hairy near the mouth; ligules very short, ciliolate; sheaths slighdy keeled, smooth; spike terminal, solitary, cylin- dric, 10-15 cm. long, about 2 cm wide; involucres with 1 spikelet, the pedicels 2-3 mm. long, the bristles 5-30 mm. long, unequal, scabrous; spikelets about 7 mm. long, lanceolate or broadly so, acute; glumes rather chartaceous, the first minute, the second about half as long as the spikelet, narrowly oblong, acute; sterile lemma as long as the fertile, both broadly lan­ceolate and acute; Aug.-Nov. Grassy places and waste grounds in lowlands.

Hokkaido (sw. distr.), Honshu, Shi­koku, Kyushu; very common.  Korea, China, Formosa to Philippines. Our material consists of three phases based on the color of the involucral bristles.                   

f. purpurascens (Thunb.) Ohwi. Bristles dark purple; the commonest form.   

f. viridescens (Miq.) Ohwi. Bristles pale green.

f. erythrochaetum Ohwi. Bristles red.