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Bothriochloa pertusa

(Indian Couch Grass)

Common Names

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Click on the language to view common names.

Common Names in English:

Hurricane Grass, Indian Couch Grass, Pitted Beardgrass, Pitted Bluestem

Common Names in Spanish:

Comagueyana

Description

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Family Poaceae

Annual or perennial herbs, or tall woody bamboos . Flowering stems (culms ) jointed , internodes hollow or solid; branches arising singly from nodes and subtended by a leaf sheath and 2-keeled prophyll, often fascicled in bamboos. Leaves arranged alternately in 2 ranks , differentiated into sheath, blade , and an adaxial erect appendage at sheath/blade junction (ligule) ; leaf sheath surrounding and supporting culm-internode, split to base or infrequently tubular with partially or completely fused margins , modified with reduced blade in bamboos (culm sheaths) ; leaf blades divergent, usually long, narrow and flat, but varying from inrolled and filiform to ovate , veins parallel, sometimes with cross-connecting veinlets (especially in bamboos) ; ligule membranous or a line of hairs . Inflorescence terminal or axillary , an open, contracted , or spikelike panicle, or composed of lax to spikelike racemes arranged along an elongate central axis, or digitate, paired , or occasionally solitary; axillary inflorescences often many, subtended by spatheoles (specialized bladeless leaf sheaths) and gathered into a leafy compound panicle; spikelets often aggregated into complex clusters in bamboos. Spikelets composed of distichous bracts arranged along a slender axis (rachilla) ; typically 2 lowest bracts (glumes ) empty, subtending 1 to many florets ; glumes often poorly differentiated from accompanying bracts in bamboos. Florets composed of 2 opposing bracts enclosing a single small flower, outer bract (lemma) clasping the more delicate, usually 2-keeled inner bract (palea) ; base of floret often with thickened prolongation articulated with rachilla (callus) ; lemma often with apical or dorsal bristle (awn ), glumes also sometimes awned . Flowers bisexual or unisexual ; lodicules (small scales representing perianth) 2, rarely 3 or absent, 3 to many in bamboos, hyaline or fleshy ; stamens 3 rarely 1, 2, 6, or more in some bamboos, hypogynous, filaments capillary , anthers versatile; ovary 1-celled, styles (1 or) 2(rarely 3), free or united at base, topped by feathery stigmas, exserted from sides or apex of floret. Fruit normally a dry indehiscent caryopsis with thin pericarp firmly adherent to seed, pericarp rarely free, fleshy in some bamboos; embryo small or large; hilum punctate to linear .

About 700 genera and 11,000 species: widely distributed in all regions of the world.[1]

Physical Description

Species Bothriochloa pertusa

Perennial , often stoloniferous , sward forming. Culms erect or geniculately ascending , up to 100 cm tall, 5- or more-noded, nodes bearded . Leaf sheaths keeled ; leaf blades linear , 5-20 × 0.1-0.4 cm, tubercle-based hairs on both surfaces or abaxial surface glabrous , apex acute; ligule 0.5-2 mm. Inflorescence composed of 3-5(-) 8 racemes , subdigitate; racemes 3-8 cm, tinged purplish; rachis internodes and pedicels ciliate with long silky hairs. Sessile spikelet 3-4.5 mm; lower glume narrowly elliptic , cartilaginous , back concave , 5-7-veined, glossy, sparsely hirtellous to silky-pilose below middle , a circular pit above hairs, 2-keeled, margins keeled and scabrid near apex; awn of upper lemma 1-2 cm. Pedicelled spikelet male or barren, pur-plish, subequal to sessile spikelet, glabrous. Fl. and fr. Jul-Oct. 2n = 40, 60. [source]

The type of Bothriochloa nana is a stunted specimen of B . pertusa with the spikelets infected by a smut fungus. [source]

Habitat

Grassy hills , disturbed ground ; 1200-1500 m [2].

Typically found at an altitude of 0 to 1,589 meters (0 to 5,213 feet).[3]

Biome: Terrestrial

Taxonomy

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Unambiguous Synonyms

  1. Amphilophis pertusa (L.) Nash Ex Stapf
  2. Amphilophis pertusa (L.) Stapf
  3. Am-philophis pertusa (Linnaeus) Stapf
  4. Andropogon pertusus (L.) Willd.
  5. Andropogon pertusus (Linnaeus) Willdenow
  6. Bothriochloa nana W. Z. Fang
  7. Dichanthium ischaemum (L.) Roberty Subvar. Pertusum (L.) Roberty
  8. Dichanthium pertusum (L.) Clayton
  9. Dichan-thium pertusum (Linnaeus) Clayton.
  10. Elionurus pertusus (L.) Nees Ex Steud.
  11. Holcus pertusus L.
  12. Holcus pertusus Linnaeus, Mant. Pl. 2: 301. 1771

Notes

Name Status: Accepted Name . Latest taxonomic scrutiny: 15-Mar-2000

Place of publication : Ann. Soc. Linn. Lyon sér. 2, 76:164. 1931

Name verified on 02-Oct-1997 by ARS Systematic Botanists. Last updated: 03-Dec-1999

Similar Species

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Members of the genus Bothriochloa

ZipcodeZoo has pages for 90 species, subspecies, varieties, forms, and cultivars in this genus:

B. alta (Tall Beardgrass) · B. ambigua · B. anamitica · B. assimilis · B. barbinodies · B. barbinodis (Palmer's Cane Bluestem) · B. barbinodis var. barbinodis (Cane Bluestem) · B. barbinodis var. schlumbergeri · B. barbinoides · B. biloba · B. bladhii (Australian Beardgrass) · B. bladhii subsp. bladhii · B. bladhii subsp. glabra · B. bladhii var. punctata · B. brasiliensis · B. bunyensis · B. campii · B. caucasica · B. compressa · B. concanensis · B. curtipendula · B. decipens · B. decipiens (Crown Beardgrass) · B. decipiens var. decipiens · B. edwardsiana (Edwards Plateau Beardgrass) · B. emersa · B. ensiformis · B. erianthoides (Feathered Beardgrass) · B. eurylemma · B. ewartiana · B. exaristata (Awnless Beardgrass) · B. foulkesii · B. glabra · B. gracilis · B. grahamii · B. haenkei · B. hassleri · B. hirtifolia · B. hybrida (Hybrid Beardgrass) · B. imperatoides · B. insculpta (Creeping-Bluegrass) · B. intermedia · B. inundata · B. ischaemum (Turkestan Beard Grass) · B. ischaemum var. ischaemum (Turkestan Beard Grass) · B. ischaemum var. songarica (King Ranch Bluestem) · B. ischoemum · B. kuntzeana · B. kwashotensis · B. laguroides · B. laguroides laguroides (Silver Beard Grass) · B. laguroides subsp. torreyana (Silver Beardgrass) · B. laguroides torreyana var. lanceolatum (Silver Beard Grass) · B. laguroides var. torreyana · B. leucopogon · B. longifolia · B. longipaniculata (Longspike Silver Bluestem) · B. macera · B. macra · B. meridionalis · B. modesta · B. nana · B. odorata · B. oryzetorum · B. palmeri · B. panormitana · B. parviflora · B. parviflora var. spicigera · B. pauciflora · B. perforata · B. pertusa (Indian Couch Grass) · B. picta · B. pseudischaemum · B. radicans · B. reevesii · B. saccharoides (Silver Beard Grass) · B. saccharoides var. laguroides · B. saccharoides var. pulvinata · B. saccharoides var. saccharoides · B. schlumbergeri · B. spicigera · B. springfieldii (Springfield's Beard Grass) · B. springfieldii var. springfieldii · B. taiwanensis · B. tuberculata · B. velutina · B. venusta · B. woodrovii · B. wrightii (Wright´s Bluestem) · B. yunnanensis

More Info

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Further Reading

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Notes

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Contributors

Data Sources

Accessed through GBIF Data Portal November 15, 2007:

Identifiers

Footnotes

  1. Shou-liang Chen, De-Zhu Li, Guanghua Zhu, Zhenlan Wu, Sheng-lian Lu, Liang Liu, Zheng-ping Wang, Bi-xing Sun, Zheng-de Zhu, Nianhe Xia, Liang-zhi Jia, Zhenhua Guo, Wenli Chen, Xiang Chen, Yang Guangyao, Sylvia M. Phillips, Chris Stapleton, Robert J. Soreng, Susan G. Aiken, Nikolai N. Tzvelev, Paul M. Peterson, Stephen A. Renvoize, Marina V. Olonova & Klaus Ammann "Poaceae". in Flora of China Vol. 22. Published by Science Press (Beijing) and Missouri Botanical Garden Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]
  2. "Bothriochloa pertusa". in Flora of China Vol. 22 Page 607, 608, 609. Missouri Botanical Garden Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]
  3. Mean = -100.840 meters (-330.840 feet), Standard Deviation = 854.260 based on 228 observations. Altitude information for each observation from British Oceanographic Data Centre. [back]
Last Revised: 7/1/2009