Fineleaf switchgrass

Perennial herb, leaves erect and slender, tip arching, terminal panicle, flowering period from September to October, flower color changing from pink to red, turning silvery white in autumn. Below the panicle, sparse soft hairs. Sheaths are longer than internodes, with long soft hairs only at the mouth and upper margin, the rest being hairless; leaf ligule slightly thick, tip obtuse rounded, margin eroded, 1-2 mm long; leaf blade linear, 20-70 cm long, 5-15 mm wide, hairless except for long soft hairs or tubercles at the base, or sometimes with sparse soft hairs on the back and a pinkish white hue, with dense fine serrations and distinct edges. The panicle is fan-shaped, 15-40 cm long, the main axis hairless or with short hairs, extending only to the middle below the panicle, with 10-30 branches; branches robust, 10-35 cm long, obliquely ascending or slightly spreading, each node with 1 short peduncle and 1 long spikelet, sometimes with 3 or 4 spikelets on the same node at the base of the rachis; rachis internodes 4-10 mm long, hairless; spikelet peduncles hairless, short ones 1.5-2 (-3) mm long, long ones 4-6 mm long, often spreading outward; spikelets lanceolate, 4-5 mm long, with a pale yellow-brown or nearly white silky long hair at the base, slightly longer than the spikelet or equal in length; the first glume papery, lanceolate, with 3 veins, marginal vein forming a keel, back smooth and hairless; the second glume boat-shaped, tip acuminate, with fine hairs on the upper edge; the first lemma lanceolate, membranous and transparent, slightly shorter than the glumes, tip acute, with fine hairs on the margin; the second lemma narrowly lanceolate, about 3.2 mm long, membranous and transparent, with a few fine hairs on the margin, tip 2-lobed to 1/3 or slightly below, with awns between the teeth; awn genuflexed, 8-10 mm long, rachilla slightly twisted; lemma usually absent; stamens 3, anthers brownish yellow, about 2.2 mm long; stigma purple-black; long-peduncled spikelets similar to short-peduncled ones.