Mao Gen

Bai Mao Gen is the rhizome of Imperata cylindrica, known in English as cogon grass or lalang, a perennial member of the Poaceae family. The plant forms dense colonies from extensively creeping, white, jointed underground rhizomes that are tough, fibrous, and sweet to the taste. Aboveground, slender erect culms rise 30 to 120 centimetres bearing narrow, flat, sharply pointed leaf blades with a prominent pale midrib and finely serrated margins. Inflorescences are dense, silvery-white, silky panicles 5 to 20 centimetres long, the spikelets surrounded by long white hairs that give the seed heads a cottony appearance. The species favours open sunny ground, sandy slopes, and disturbed wastelands throughout China and across tropical and subtropical regions worldwide, where it is often an aggressive invader.