MPdb: Melghat Plant Data Bank
MG078 : Sporobolus indicus var. fertilis |
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| Melghat's Flora's Serial No. : | 641 |
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| Plant Location in Melghat : | In moist, open situations, fields | |||||||||||||
| Plant Category : | Grasses | |||||||||||||
| Plant's Current Status : | Common | |||||||||||||
| Plant Family : | Gramineae | |||||||||||||
| Plant Common Name : | Giant Parramatta Grass | |||||||||||||
| Synonym : | Sporobolus fertilis (Steud.) Clayton Agrostis fertilis Steud. Sporobolus diandrus (Retz.) P. Beauv. var. major Büse Sporobolus indicus (L.) R. Br. var. major (Buse) Baaijens |
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| Description : | An upright (i.e. erect) and long-lived (i.e. perennial) grass usually growing 70-160 cm tall, but occasionally reaching up to 2 m in height. It forms large tussocks up to 40 cm across. The hairless (i.e. glabrous) flowering stems (i.e. culms) are relatively slender (2-5 mm thick), but somewhat wiry, and are usually not branched. The leaves are very narrow (i.e. linear) with a leaf sheath, which partially encloses the stem, and a spreading leaf blade that may droop towards the ground. The leaf sheaths are hairless (i.e. glabrous), or have some tiny hairs along their margins, and may become separated from the stem as they age. The leaf blades (14-110 cm long and 1.5-5 mm wide) are hairless (i.e. glabrous), may be flat or somewhat rolled (i.e. convolute), and have pointed tips (i.e. acuminate apices). Where the leaf sheath meets the leaf blade their is a fringe of tiny hairs (i.e. ciliated ligule) about 0.2-0.5 mm long. The seed-heads are borne at the top of the stems and are very thin and elongated in appearance (15-50 cm long and 0.5-2 cm wide). These spike-like seed-heads (i.e. spiciform panicles) have most of their relatively long branches (2-8 cm long) held closely (i.e. appressed) to the stem, however some of the lowest branches may droop away slightly from the central stalk of the seed-head (i.e. rachis). Each of these branches bears numerous tiny, densely packed, elongated (i.e. lanceolate) or egg-shaped (i.e. ovate), flower spikelets (1.5-2 mm long) almost to its base. The dark green or greyish-green flower spikelets contain a single tiny flower (i.e. floret) inside two bracts (i.e. glumes). The lower bract (i.e. glume) is 0.4-0.7 mm long and the upper bract (i.e. glume) is 0.8-1.3 mm long (i.e. at least half the length of the flower spikelet). Flowering occurs during spring, summer and autumn. The tiny 'seeds' (i.e. grains or caryopses) are initially whitish in colour, but turn yellowish-brown or reddish-brown as they mature. These seeds (0.8-1.2 mm long and 0.5-0.75 mm wide) are oblong or egg-shaped (i.e. obovoid) and separate from the remainder of the flower spikelet at maturity (i.e. the pale coloured old glumes remain on the seed-head). | |||||||||||||
| Curated Medicinal Use / Activity : | ||||||||||||||
| Plant's Phytochemicals : | ||||||||||||||
| Reference : | ~ Dhore MA and Joshi PA; "Flora of Melghat Tiger Reserve"; Directorate, Project Tiger, Melghat (1988); PMID : |
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