[Andropogon insularis L.; Panicum leucophaeum Kunth; Tricachne insularis (L.) Nees.; Valota insularis (L.) Chase]
(nat) Sourgrass
Densely tufted perennials; culms erect, 100-150 cm tall, base swollen, pubescent, hard, scaly. Sheaths 12-15 cm long, much longer than internodes, usually papillose- pilose with hairs 5-10 mm long, or occa-sionally only papillose or glabrous, striate, compressed, keeled; ligule membranous, 5- 10 mm long; blades lanceolate, 15-50 cm long, 10-15 mm wide, midrib conspicuous, upper surface scabrous, lower surface glabrous. Inflorescences paniculate, 15-25 cm long, narrow, the branches slender, somewhat nodding, 7-15 cm long, silky pubescent; spikelets paired, narrowly elliptic, 3.5-4 mm long, densely yellowish brown silky pubescent; first glume ovate, scalelike, 0.5-1 mm long, second glume and first lemma subequal, 3-5-nerved, densely silky pubescent, the hairs exceeding the spikelets; second lemma reddish brown, lanceolate, 3-3.5 mm long, apex acuminate; palea similar to lemma. Caryopsis whitish, compressed-ovoid, ca. 1.5 mm long, apex beaked. [2n = 36.] Native to the Neotropics, widely naturalized on Pacific islands and in Malesia; in Hawaii naturalized in abandoned fields, disturbed sites, and along roadsides, 0-340 m, on Midway Atoll and all of the main islands except Niihau. First collected on 0‘ahu in 1924 (Lee 30, BISH).—Plate 225.