Sabaigrass

Distributed widely in India, Burma, Thailand, China and extending to the Philippines.

This species is a source of fiber.

Eulaliopsis binata is widely collected for paper-making, strings, ropes and mats. It frequents hot dry areas and its extensive underground root-system enables it to survive forest fires. It is not eaten by cattle except in times of hardship.

Rhizome stout. Culms densely tufted, 3-4-noded, 30-60 cm high. Sheath, persistent, densely woolly, swollen and imbricate; blade 10-30 cm long by 1-3 mm wide, subulate; ligule a ring of hairs. Racemes 2-4, digitately arranged, 2-4.5 mm long, covered with golden soft hairs. Spikelets paired, the one pedicellate and the other sessile. Sessile spikelet about 5 mm long, oblong-lanceolate; callus with golden hairs of about 4 mm long, lower glume fringed, 5-9-nerved, lower half golden hairy; upper glume boat-shaped, slightly longer than the lower glume; margins membranous and hairy, 5-7-nerved, lower half hairy, tipped with an awn of 3 mm long; lower lemma membranous; apex ciliate, upper lemma membranous; tipped with a long awn of equal length to the spikelet; anthers about 3.5 mm long.

Perennial; basal sheaths woolly with creamy hairs. Culms densely tufted, erect, 30–80 cm tall, nodes glabrous. Leaf sheaths glabrous, hairy at mouth; leaf blades tough, involute or rarely flat, 10–30 × 0.1–0.4 cm, uppermost very reduced, glabrous, adaxial surface and margins scabrid; ligule ca. 0.2 mm with hairs to 2 mm. Racemes 2–4, 2–5 cm, softly golden-villous; rachis internodes 2–2.5 mm, golden-villous on one or both margins, sometimes thinly. Spikelets 3.8–6 mm, yellowish; callus hairs up to 3/4 spikelet length; lower glume villous along lower margins and in tufts on back; upper glume slightly longer than lower, similarly villous, apex with a 0.3–2 mm awnlet; lower lemma narrowly oblong, equal to lower glume; upper lemma subequal to lower lemma; awn 4–9 mm. Anthers ca. 2.5 mm.

Tufted perennial; basal sheaths woolly tomentose with whitish hairs; culms 45-90 cm high. Leaf-blades mostly basal, up to 60 cm long, 2-3 mm wide, glabrous, sometimes villous towards the base, hairy at the mouth of the sheath, rigid, suberect, folded or convolute. Racemes 2-4 cm long, rufously hairy. Spikelets narrowly elliptic-oblong, 3.5-4.5 mm long; lower glume rufously hairy on the margins and with tufts of hair in the middle across the back; upper glume similarly hairy on the margins and with a single tuft in the middle on the back; lower floret male with well-developed lemma and palea; upper lemma with an awn 6-9 mm long.

Nepal, N. India, Assam, Burma, Indo-China, China, Philippines.

Distribution: Pakistan (Baluchistan, Punjab, N.W.F.P. & Kashmir); Afghanistan eastwards to Burma and Thailand; China; Philippines.

150-2600 m

Fl. & Fr. Per.: April-July.

Dry mountain slopes; Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Henan, Hubei, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Taiwan, Yunnan [Afghanistan, Bhutan, India, Japan, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Thailand].

Andropogon binatus Retz., Obs. Bot. 5 : 21. 1789.
Ischaemum angustifolium (Trin.) Hack. in Oliv. in Hook., Icon. 18: Pl. 1773. 1888; Hayata, Icon. Pl. Form. 7: 78. 1918.
Eulaliopsis angustifolia Honda, Bot. Mag. Tokyo 38: 56. 1924.

Andropogon binatus Retzius, Observ. Bot. 5: 21. 1789; A. involutus Steudel; A. notopogon Steudel; Eulaliopsis angusti-folia (Trinius) Honda; Pollinia eriopoda Hance; Pollinidium binatum (Retzius) C. E. Hubbard; Spodiopogon angustifolius Trinius; S. binatus (Retzius) Roberty.

Eulaliopsis binata, the sabaigrass or Chinese alpine rush, is a perennial plant belonging to the grass family that is grown in many Asian countries like China, Nepal, India, Pakistan, Bhutan, Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia and Philippines.

It is called bhabhar in India and lends the name to the region south of Himalayas where it grows. It is called Babiyo in Nepal.

It is mainly used for the manufacture of writing and printing paper. Pulping is done using soda and sulfate processes.In Nepal, it is used to make rope for swing for Dashain festival, one of the greatest festivals of Hindu people.