Japanese name: オニウシノケグサ（鬼牛の毛草） Scientific name:Schedonorus arundinaceus
[Overview]
A perennial 0.5–1.5 m tall.
It has almost no rhizome.
The stem is erect and unbranched.
The leaves are linear, 10–60 cm long and 0.3–1 cm wide, hairless, with the veins forming ridges on the upper surface.
The ligule is very short, and short hairs line the margins of the auricles.
A narrow, panicle-like flower spike 10–50 cm long emerges at the stem tip; at the nodes of the spike, short and long branches are borne in pairs, with 3 to several spikelets on the short branches and several to about 20 on the long branches.
The spikelets are 1.5–1.8 cm long, pale green and sometimes tinged with purple, consist of 3–10 florets, and are slightly flattened.
The lemma usually has a short awn.
[History]
It was introduced as a forage grass in the Meiji period and has become naturalized throughout the country.
