Miscanthus sinensis Andersson
Chinese fairy grass
Erect, robust clumps to 2 m, from stout, shortly branched rhizomes. Leaf-sheath stiff, papery, with scattered fine hairs, closely appressed to culm, slightly keeled above; margins with a few hairs near ligule. Ligule 3.5-6.5 mm, long-ciliate. Leaf-blade 30-65-(120) cm × 8-14 mm, tapering, abaxially midrib very wide, pale greenish cream, adaxially glaucous, with scattered appressed fine straight hairs; margins sharply, closely, finely scabrid, tip long, very fine. Culm 120-180 cm, tough, internodes glabrous. Panicle 15-25 cm, creamy- or pinkish-brown, ± fan-shaped, rachis glabrous or slightly soft-hairy. Racemes 8-15 cm, numerous, silky, » panicle rachis. Spikelets numerous; florets almost equalling soft, white involucral hairs, short pedicels < spikelets, long pedicels > spikelets, ± 3-angled, finely prickle-toothed on angles. Glumes 4-5 mm, ± equal, straw-coloured, acuminate, rounded; lower 3-nerved, scabrid above, upper 1-nerved, margins membranous, incurved, finely ciliate. Lower floret Ø: lemma 3.5-4 mm, acute, margins ciliate. Upper floret ⚥: lemma 3-4 mm, awn 5-7.5 mm; palea 1-1.5 mm; lodicules 2; anthers 2-2.3 mm; gynoecium: ovary c. 1 mm, stigma-styles c. 3 mm; caryopsis c. 2.5 × 0.7 mm.
N.: scattered throughout; S.: Nelson (Ngatimoti), Buller (Westport), Canterbury (Ashburton). Waste land, roadsides.
Naturalised from eastern Asia.
A garden escape; the variegated form M. sinensis var. zebrinus Beal with white bands at intervals across the leaves, is often grown in gardens and has also been collected from the wild.
