Common Names
Common Names in English:
Meadow Ryegrass
Description
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]
Habitat
Typically found at an altitude of 0 to 3,180 meters (0 to 10,433 feet).[2]
Taxonomy
- Domain:
Eukaryota
(
)
- Whittaker & Margulis,1978
- eukaryotes
- Kingdom:
Plantae
(
)
- Haeckel, 1866
- Plants
- Subkingdom:
Viridaeplantae
(
)
- Cavalier-Smith, 1981
- Phylum:
Tracheophyta
(
)
- Sinnott, 1935 Ex Cavalier-Smith, 1998
- Vascular Plants
- Subphylum:
Euphyllophytina
(
)
- Infraphylum:
Radiatopses
(
)
- Kenrick & Crane, 1997
- Class:
Liliopsida
(
)
- Scopoli, 1760
- Subclass:
Commelinidae
(
)
- Takhtajan, 1967
- Superorder:
Poanae
(
)
- (Small, 1903) Takhtajan, 1997 Ex Reveal & Doweld, 1999
- Order:
Poales
(
)
- Small, 1903
- Family:
Poaceae
(
)
- (R. Brown) Barnhart, 1895
- Grass Family
- Genus:
Schedonorus
(
)
- Specific epithet:
pratensis
- (Huds.) P.Beauv.
- Botanical name: - Schedonorus pratensis
- Specific epithet:
pratensis
- (Huds.) P.Beauv.
- Genus:
Schedonorus
(
- Family:
Poaceae
(
- Order:
Poales
(
- Superorder:
Poanae
(
- Subclass:
Commelinidae
(
- Class:
Liliopsida
(
- Infraphylum:
Radiatopses
(
- Subphylum:
Euphyllophytina
(
- Phylum:
Tracheophyta
(
- Subkingdom:
Viridaeplantae
(
- Kingdom:
Plantae
(
Similar Species
Members of the genus Schedonorus
ZipcodeZoo has pages for 34 species, subspecies, varieties, forms, and cultivars in this genus:
S. altissimus · S. americanus · S. arundinacea · S. arundinaceus (Coarse Fescue) · S. asper · S. benekeni · S. calamarius · S. elatior · S. erectus (Upright Brome) · S. giganteus · S. hookerianus · S. inermis · S. interruptus · S. littoralis · S. littoralis var. triticoides · S. loliaceus · S. nutans · S. obtusus · S. phoenicoides · S. phoenix · S. poaeformis · S. pratensis (Meadow Ryegrass) · S. pulchellus · S. pumilus · S. radicans · S. scirpoideus · S. serotinus · S. spadiceus · S. sterilis · S. tectorum · S. tenellus · S. uechtritzianus · S. unioloides · S. violaceus
More Info
- Search for Pictures: images.google.com
- Search for Scholarly Articles: Google Scholar
- Search using Scientific Name and Vernacular Names: All the Web | AltaVista Canada | AltaVista | Excite | Google | HotBot | Lycos
- Search using Specialized Databases: GenBank | Medline | Scirus | CISTI/CAL | Agricola Periodicals | Agricola Books
Further Reading
- Chen Shouliang, Jin Yuexing, Zhuang Tide, Fang Wenzhe, Sheng Guoying, Liu Liang, Wu Zhenlan, Lu Shenglian, Sun Bisin, Hu Zhihao, Wang Song, Sun Xiangzhong, Wang Huiqin, Yang Xilin, Wang Chaopin, Li Binggui & Wen Shaobin. 1990. Gramineae (Poaceae) (4). In: Chen Shouliang, ed., Fl. Reipubl. Popularis Sin. 10(1):1401
- Chen Shouliang, Zhuang Tide, Fang Wenzhe, Sheng Guoying, Jin Yuexing, Liu Liang, Sun Bisin, Hu Zhihao & Wang Song. 1997. Gramineae (Poaceae) (5). In: Chen Shouliang, ed., Fl. Reipubl. Popularis Sin. 10(2): 1301
- Liu Liang, Zhu Taiping, Chen Wenli, Wu Zhenlan & Lu Shenglian. Gramineae (Poaceae) (2). In: Liu Liang, ed., Fl. Reipubl. Popularis Sin. 9(2): 1405
- Lu Sheng-lian, Sun Yong-hua, Liu Shang-wu, Yang Yong-chang, Wu Zhen-lan, Kuo Pen-chao, Yang Hsi-ling, Wang Chao-pin & Tsui Nai-ran. 1987. Gramineae (3). In: Kuo Pen-chao, ed., Fl. Reipubl. Popularis Sin. 9(3): 1329
- Wang Zhengping, Ye Guanghan, Yang Yaling, Yu Zehua, Hu Chenhua, Geng Bojie, Feng Xuelin, Jia Liangzhi, Xia Nianhe, Li Dezhu, Zhang Weiping, Xue Jiru, Zhu Zhengde, Zhao Qiseng, Chen Shouliang, Sheng Guoying, Chen Shaoyun, Yao Changyu, Lu Jionglin, Sun Jiliang, Lin Wantao, Yi Tongpei, Zhao Huiru, Wen Taihui & Dai Qihui. 1996. Gramineae (Poaceae) (1).
Notes
Contributors
- Global Biodiversity Information Facility. Accessed March 16, 2008. http://www.gbif.org Mediated distribution data from 8 providers.
Data Sources
Accessed through GBIF Data Portal March 16, 2008:
- Arizona State University, International Institute for Species Exploration: The Deaver Herbarium, Northern Arizona University
- Burke Museum: Vascular Plant Collection - University of Washington Herbarium (WTU)
- Icelandic Institute of Natural History: Herbarium (AMNH)
- Icelandic Institute of Natural History: Herbarium (ICEL)
- Icelandic Institute of Natural History: Observational database of Icelandic plants
- Natural History Museum, University of Oslo: Vascular Plant Herbarium, Oslo (O)
- Natural History Museum, University of Oslo: Vascular Plants, Field notes, Oslo (O)
- Oregon State University: Vascular Plant Collection
- University of Alaska Museum of the North: UAM Botany Specimens
- USDA PLANTS: USDA PLANTS Database
- Utah State University: USU-UTC Specimen Database
Identifiers
- Biodiversity Heritage Library NamebankID: 8306607
- Global Biodiversity Information Facility Taxonkey: 13953736
- Globally Unique Identifier: urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:420796-1
- Zipcode Zoo Species Identifier: 3645074
Footnotes
- 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]
- Mean = 322.080 meters (1,056.693 feet), Standard Deviation = 620.190 based on 3,080 observations. Altitude information for each observation from British Oceanographic Data Centre. [back]
