[Andropogon contortus L.; Heteropogon contortus f. tothillii Degener & I. Degener; H. glaber sensu Hook. & Arnott, non Pers.]
(ind?) Pili, pili grass, twisted beard- grass, tanglehead, lule Perennials; culms tufted, erect, 4-10 dm tall, compressed, glabrous, often glaucous.
Sheaths 6-10 cm long, compressed, keeled, glabrous or sparsely hispid at throat, usually glaucous; ligule a ciliate membrane ca. 1 mm long; blades pale bluish green, firm, flat to slightly involute, 10-30 cm long, 3-7 mm wide, striate, scabrous. Racemes solitary at apex of flowering culm, secund, often slightly nodding, 4-7 cm long, the slender rachis continuous in the lower part, bearing pairs of staminate spikelets, the remainder disarticulating obliquely at base of each joint, the joint forming a fcharp barbed callus below the fertile spikelet, the pedicellate spikelet readily falling; upper sessile spikelet ca. 7 mm long, slender, awns 5-12 cm long, bent, flexuous, often tan-gled, appressed pilose in lower part, scabrous toward apex; lower sessile spikelet and pedicellate spikelet ca. 10 mm long, first glume firm, asymmetrical, papillose-hispid near margins and the acuminate apex, overlapping and nearly concealing the sessile spikelets. [2n = 20, 39-44, 50, 60, ca. 69- 80, 90.] Widely distributed throughout the tropics; in Hawai‘i indigenous or possibly a Polynesian introduction, occurring on dry rocky cliffs, ledges, or slopes close to ocean exposure, 0-700 m, on all of the main islands. —Plate 229.
Pili appears to be rapidly diminishing in some areas, especially on 0‘ahu and Molo- ka‘i. The new taxon coined by Degener and Degener (1968b) is distinguished only by chromosome number. Tothill (1968) discusses the extensive variation in this species throughout the tropics.