Japanese name: カニツリグサ（蟹釣草） Scientific name:Trisetum bifidum
[Overview]
A soft-textured perennial 40–80 cm tall, found in grasslands and along roadsides from lowlands to hilly areas.
The rhizome is short and inconspicuous.
The stems grow in tufts, and the leaves arise from the stem nodes; they are linear, 10–20 cm long and 0.3–0.5 cm wide, and are hairless or sparsely covered with soft hairs.
A conical flower spike 10–20 cm long, drooping at the tip, appears at the stem tip; two branches arise from each node of the spike, bearing rather sparse spikelets.
The spikelets are 0.6–0.8 cm long, consist of 2–3 florets, and are yellowish green to yellowish brown.
The lemma is rough all over, with the tip split in two and long-pointed, and an awn 0.6–1 cm long emerges from between the lobes.
The awn is twisted partway along and bends outward.
[Notes]
The Japanese name is said to come from children playing by putting the spikes into crab burrows to catch crabs.
