Mauritian Grass

A very common grass all over the Island in plains and hills. It is considered, to be a good fodder when it is young, but it is discarded if other more palatable grasses are available. It is often found in hedges and among bushes, also along forest margins and irrigation ditches.

This is a polymorphic species widespread in tropical Asia.

This is considered to be a fairly good fodder grass and is readily eaten by cattle when young. It is very common in the plains and at low elevation in the Himalayas. In hedges and bushy places it usually assumes a climbing habit. It often constitutes a large part of the undergrowth in forests.

Rhizome stout; short. Culms up to 130 cm high, basal part ascending, branching and rooting. Blade scabrous throughout, base petiolate, up to 20 cm long; ligule membranous, about 2 mm long; sheath usually longer than the internode, glabrous. False panicle up to 40 cm long; raceme single, about 8 mm long, subtended by swollen involucre. Spikelets 3 on 1-noded rachis; one sessile and the other 2 pedicellate, one of the pedicellate spikelets much reduced. Sessile spikelet about 5 mm long; callus well developed, about 1 mm long; lower glume coriaceous, usually farinose, nerves numerous, rounded on the back; upper glume boat-shaped, ; 5-7-nerved; lower lemma membranous, paleate, subequaling the spikelet; upper lemma membranous, 2/3 as long as the spikelet, entire, terminating in an awn arising from the sinus, the palea 1/3 as long as the lemma, anthers about 2 mm long.

Culms rooting from lower nodes, up to 3 m long, smooth, glabrous, much branched in upper part, branches flexuous. Leaf sheaths usually glabrous; leaf blades flat, 10–30 × 0.5–2 cm, attenuate to a setaceous apex; ligule 1–2 mm. Spathate panicle up to 50 cm, branches very slender with spaced spathes subtending small clusters of spatheoles; spatheole ovate in side view, herbaceous, multiveined, up to 1 cm, often tipped by a fimbriate ligule and narrow vestigial blade; peduncle 1–1.5 mm; raceme 7–10 mm; pedicels oblong, 3–4 mm, glabrous or ciliate upward. Sessile spikelet 4–5 mm; lower glume narrowly elliptic-lanceolate; lower lemma as long as or shorter than lower glume; upper lemma deeply 2-lobed with 4–12 mm awn, or entire to emarginate and awnless. Pedicelled spikelets lanceolate, awnless. Fl. and fr. Jul–Dec.

Rambling perennial; culms up to about 3 m long, rooting from the lower nodes. Leaf-blades flat, 5-25 cm long, 2-10 mm wide, attenuate at the tip. False panicle linear, interrupted, 3.40 cm long; spatheole narrowly ovate in side view, 3.5-10 mm long, acuminate. Sessile spikelet 2-6 mm long; lower glume narrowly elliptic-lanceolate; upper lemma deeply bifid with an awn 4-12 mm long or entire to emarginate and awnless. Pedicelled spikelets broadly lanceolate, the larger 2-5 mm long; pedicels narrowly oblong, 24 mm long.

Himalaya, India, S. E. Asia, Australia.

Distributed from India throughout Southeast Asia to Australia.

Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hainan, Hunan, Jiangxi, Sichuan, Taiwan, Xizang, Yunnan, Zhejiang [Afghanistan, Bhutan, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Japan (Ryukyu Islands), Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, New Guinea, Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam; SW Asia (Oman, Socotra), Australia (Queensland), Indian Ocean Islands (Mascarenes), Madagascar, Pacific Islands (New Caledonia)].

Distribution: Pakistan (Sind, Punjab, N.W.F.P. & Kashmir); Arabia and Socotra; throughout tropical Asia and in Australia and New Caledonia.

800-2500 m

Fl. & Fr. Per.: August-November.

Common in thickets and along forest margins, sometimes forming large masses; below 1800 m.

Apluda aristata Linnaeus; A. communis Nees; A. genicu-lata Roxburgh; A. microstachya Nees; A. mutica var. aristata (Linnaeus) Hackel; A. varia Hackel, nom. illeg. superfl.

Perennials, Terrestrial, not aquatic, Stems trailing, spreading or prostrate, Stems scandent, climbing, tips pendulous, Stems nodes swollen or brittle, Stems geniculate, decumbent, or lax, sometimes rooting at nodes, Stems solitary, Stems terete, round in cross section, or polygonal, Stem internodes hollow, Stems with inflorescence less than 1 m tall, Stems with inflorescence 1-2 m tall, Stems with inflorescence 2-6 m tall, Stems, culms, or scapes exceeding basal leaves, Leaves mostly cauline, Leaves conspicuously 2-ranked, distichous, Leaves pseudo-petiolate, petiole attached to sheath, Leaves sheathing at base, Leaf sheath mostly open, or loose, Leaf sheath smooth, glabrous, Leaf sheath and blade differentiated, Leaf blades linear, Leaf blades 2-10 mm wide, Leaf blades mostly flat, Leaf blades mostly glabrous, Ligule present, Ligule a fringed, ciliate, or lobed membrane, Inflorescence termin al, Inflorescence an open panicle, openly paniculate, branches spreading, Inflorescence with 2 or more spikes, fascicles, glomerules, heads, or clusters per culm, Inflorescence lax, widely spreading, branches drooping, pendulous, Inflorescence a panicle with narrowly racemose or spicate branches, Flowers bisexual, Spikelets pedicellate, Spikelets laterally compressed, Inflorescence or spikelets partially hidden in leaf sheaths, subtended by spatheole, Spikelet less than 3 mm wide, Spikelets with 1 fertile floret, Spikelets with 2 florets, Spikelet with 1 fertile floret and 1-2 sterile florets, Spikelets 3 per node, Spikelets with 1 terminal fertile floret and 2 lateral staminate or sterile florets, Spikelets bisexual, Spikelets disarticulating below the glumes, Rachilla or pedicel glabrous, Glumes present, empty bracts, Glumes 2 clearly present, Glumes distinctly unequal, Glumes equal to or longer than adjacent lemma, Glume equal to or longer than spikelet, Glumes keeled or winged, Glumes 8-15 nerved, Glumes 2-5 toothed, Lemmas thin, chartaceous, hyaline, cartilaginous, or membranous, Lemma 3 nerved, Lemma glabrous, Lemma apex dentate, 2-fid, Lemma mucronate, very shortly beaked or awned, less than 1-2 mm, Lemma distinctly awned, more than 2-3 mm, Lemma with 1 awn, Lemma awn less than 1 cm long, Lemma awn 1-2 cm long, Lemma awn from sinus of bifid apex, Lemma awns straight or curved to base, Lemma awn twisted, spirally coiled at base, like a corkscrew, Lemma margins thin, lying flat, Lemma straight, Palea present, well developed, Palea membranous, hyaline, Palea about equal to lemma, Stamens 1, Styles 2-fid, deeply 2-branched, Stigmas 2, Fruit - caryopsis, Caryopsis ellipsoid, longitudinally grooved, hilum long-linear.