lalangn.

1779 T. Forrest Voy. New Guinea ii. iii. 192 The country hereabouts is now covered with long grass, called lalang.

1887 H. W. Daly Digging, Squatting, & Pioneering Life S. Austral. 158 A shake-down..made up of dried lallang—the thick strong grass of the country.

1887 Encycl. Brit. XXII. 93/1 There are waste spaces..covered with coarse lalang grass.

1908 Westm. Gaz. 12 Aug. 5/1 The prolific weed known as ‘lalang’ is the great enemy to rubber-growth.

1912 Chambers's Jrnl. Feb. 98/1 As I stood in the lalang patch..there passed over my head..all the turmoil of a great city.

1918 Chambers's Jrnl. Feb. 140/1 Utilising the lalang or ‘blady’ grass, for the manufacture of paper-pulp.

1925 Chambers's Jrnl. June 408/2 The manager..contracted with a Chinese to eradicate some four hundred acres of lalang grass on his estate.

1933 L. Ainsworth Confessions Planter in Malaya 190 It was decided to tackle all ‘lallang’ land (areas that in the past had been cleared of virgin jungle by the Chinese, but which subsequently had been..allowed to become overgrown with lallang weed).

1969 J. M. Gullick Malaysia ii. 67 Lallang is the Malay name for Imperata cylindrica, a coarse grass which grows freely on untended land in Malaya.

1972 Malay Mail (Kuala Lumpur) 25 May 6/3 Poisons to kill weeds and lallang..could have been absorbed by the jering tree.