Gigantochloa sp. (TH: Yala)

Specimen: BS-0559 [BBG] (living plant), "Lalae", ต. บาละ (Bala Subdistrict), อ. กาบัง (Kabang District), Yala Province, southern Thailand, coll. by C. S. #3061, 1 June 2010.

Characteristics: Habit tight caespitose. Rhizome pachymorph, short [n.v.]. Culms straight, erect [ultimate height and diameter unknown]. Young shoots yellowish, dark brown fuzzy, culm-leaf blades light to dark green, horizontally patent; emerge March/September. Culm-internodes terete, light green when young, green to brownish green when old, pale or brown short hairy throughout, dark brown short-hairy below nodes. Culm-nodes dark brown hairy, and flat. Branches [not observed]. Culm-leaves persistent, decaying on culm, or late deciduous. Culm-leaf sheaths much shorter than the internode, about 1/4–1/3 of the internode length, coriaceous, yellowish when young, light straw-colored when old, thickly covered with rigid dark brown hairs throughout except for small areas on both sides of the upper part, which usually remain glabrous or nearly so, the hairs becoming black with age; margins dark brown densely ciliate; apex slightly convex truncate. Culm-leaf auricles rim-like, dark green when young, dark straw-colored when dry, glabrous, eciliate. Culm-leaf ligule with long erect or bent whitish fringes. Culm-leaf blades coriaceous, persistent, horizontally patent, reflexed with age, broadly lanceolate, dark brown hairy on the adaxial surface near the base, otherwise glabrous, less than half the length of the sheath, dark green when young, straw-colored when dry. Foliage-leaves [not observed]. Flowers and seeds are unknown.

Provisional identification: Gigantochloa sp., similar to Gigantochloa scortechinii.