Japan Flora: Tufted, rather stout, strongly pilose throughout, with firm creeping rhizomes; culms 30-120 cm. long, erect, sometimes scarcely pilose; leaf­blades linear, somewhat spreading, 15-40 cm. long, 5-15 mm. wide, flat or involute; ligules very short, long-ciliate; sheaths usually longer than the internodes, often pilose; panicles 8-30 cm. long, dense to rather loose, the branches short to elongate, sometimes spikelike, usually hairy in the axils; spikelets usu- ally geminate, pedicelled, green and often dull purplish, some­times glaucescent, ovate to narrowly so, 35-4.5 mm. long; glumes acuminate, firmly membranous, the first slighdy shorter than the spikelet, 3-nerved, sometimes with 1 or 2 pairs of accessory short nerves, the second longer, 5- to 1-nerved; sterile lemma slightly shorter, but similar to the second glume, with a hyaline palea and stamens; fertile lemma 2.5-3 nun. long, awnless or rarely with a short, straight awn from the entire apex and a tuft of hairs at base 1/4-1/3 as long as the lemma. Aug.-Oct. Lowlands and mountains.

Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku, Kyushu; very common and variable. Ussuri, Manchuria, and China. Varieties based on pubescence are as follows:

var. hondana Koidz. Oni-toda-shiba. Similar to the typical phase, the spikelets pilose.

var. ciliata Koidz. Usuge-toda-shiba. Plant thinly pilose.

var. riparia (Honda) Ohwi. Culms usually geniculate at base; fertile lemma with the awn about 3 mm. long, slightly geniculate. Honshu (Doro-kyo in Kii); rare