Japan Flora: Tufted stout perennial, with thick, short rhizomes; culms 1-2 m. long; leaves radical and cauline, the blades flat, 1-2 cm. wide, much-elongate, pale green beneath, coarsely scabrous on mar­gins, midrib thickened toward base; panicles corymbose, 20-30 cm. long, the axis short, less than half as long as the racemes; racemes rather numerous and dense, 15-30 cm. long; spikelets geminate, ascending or obliquely spreading, lanceolate, 5-7 mm. long, acuminate, yellowish, awned, with a tuft of white or purplish hairs 7-12 mm. long, pedicellate; glumes rather coriaceous, acuminate, with hyaline apex and margins; awn of fertile lemma 8-15 mm. long. Aug.-Oct. Slopes in low­ lands and mountains; Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku, Kyushu; common and variable. s. Kuriles, Korea, China, Ryukyus, and Formosa.

cv. Gracillimus. A narrow-leaved cultivated phase.

cv. Zebrinus. Cultivated phase with narrow, very scabrous, intermittent transverse whitish bands across the leaf blades.

var. condensatus (Hack.) Makino. Stouter; leaf-blades 1.5-4 cm. wide, glaucous beneath, less scabrous, panicles much denser. Near  seashores, sometimes in moun­tains; Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku, Kyushu; rather common. Korea, China, Indochina, and the Pacific Islands.

Russia Flora: Plant 50—150 (200) cm tall, with thick scaly rhizomes, forming large loose tufts. Stems pubescent at nodes (sometimes also below inflorescence). Sheaths usually glabrous, rarely weakly hairy (in young shoots — patent-hairy); leaf blades (5) 8—15 (20) mm wide, flat, long-acuminate, glabrous above, with long hairs at base beneath, with prominent whitish midrib; ligule of upper leaves 0.7—2 mm long; sheath-blade joint hairy. Inflorescence (10) 15—25 cm long, fan-like expanding upward, consisting of (6) 8—20 spike-like branches. Spikelets 4.5—5.5 mm long, arranged in pairs on pedicels of different lengths, falling entire at fruiting, with upper fertile and lower sterile flower. Glumes equal in length to spikelet, at base and along margins or almost over entire dorsal surface with long reddish (later brownish) hairs. Lower lemma of fertile flower glabrous, with awn 8—15 mm long, arising from dentate apex of lemma. Anthers 2—2.7 mm long. 2n=38—40 (Sokolovskaya, 1966).

Ussuri, South Sakhalin, South Kurils. (Fig. 161). — On forest edges, clearcuts, among shrubs, on open rocky and fine-earth slopes. VIII—X. Ornamental, soil-protective. — General distribution: Caucasus (introduced); Japanese-Chinese. — Described from China.