Japanese name: ヒロハノウシノケグサ（広葉の牛の毛草） Scientific name:Schedonorus pratensis
[Overview]
A perennial 0.3–1 m tall.
It has almost no rhizome.
The stem is erect and unbranched, with 2–4 nodes, long internodes, and is hairless.
The leaves are linear, 20–45 cm long and 0.3–1 cm wide, hairless, and slightly flattened or loosely inrolled.
The ligule is very short, and the auricles are hairless.
A narrow, panicle-like flower spike 10–20 cm long emerges at the stem tip; at the nodes of the spike, short and long branches are borne in pairs, with 1–3 spikelets on the short branches and 3–10 on the long branches.
The spikelets are 1–2 cm long, pale green, consist of 6–14 florets, and are slightly flattened.
The glumes are lanceolate; the first glume is 2–4 mm long and the second glume is 3–5 mm long.
The lemma is 6–7 mm long and usually has no awn.
[History]
It was introduced as a forage grass in the Meiji period and has become naturalized mainly in Hokkaido.
