Cenchrus echinatus

 

Annual herbs; culms geniculate, 20-75 cm tall, tufted; nodes glabrous. Leaves 8-35 x 0.4-12 cm, linear-lanceolate, base rounded, apex acuminate, pilose on upper surface, scabrid on margins; sheaths keeled, to 12 cm long; ligule a row of hairs. Panicles spike-like, 4-10 cm long; rachis angular with sharp-edged decurrent wings, puberulous. Spikelets 3-5, 6-7 mm long, enclosed by a deciduous involucre of bristles; involucre to 8 mm long; bristles unequal, outer smaller, retrorsely barbed; lower glume c. 3 mm long, ovate, acute; upper glumes c. 5 mm long, ovate-lanceolate, 3-5 nerved. Lower floret male; upper floret bisexual; first lemma 5 – 6 mm long, ovate-lanceolate; palea c. 6 mm long, ovate-lanceolate, 2-nerved, delicate; second lemma c. 6 mm long, ovate-lanceolate, acute, 5-nerved. Stamens 3; filaments 7-8 mm long. Ovary c. 1 mm long, globose; stigma plumose, c. 3 mm long, white. Grain 3-3.5 x 2.5-3 mm, ellipsoid.

Flowering and fruiting: October-March
Along sea coasts
Native of Tropical America; introduced in India and Sri Lanka

(Attributions- Dr. N Sasidharan (Dr. B P Pal Fellow), Kerala Forest Research Institute, Peechi from India Biodiversity Portal)


 

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Submission of Cenchrus echinatus : 2 posts by 2 authors. Attachments (2)

Plant name: Cenchrus echinatus L., Sp. Pl. 1050. 1753.
Ver. names: Southern sandspur, Mossman river grass (Eng.)

Family: Poaceae
Description: Annual. Culms geniculately ascending; 15-60 cm tall. Leaf-blades 4–25 × 0.5-1cm linear-lanceolate, sheaths scabrous; ligule a fringe of hairs. Panicle spiciform 2-10cm long; axis angular; bearing deciduous spikelet clusters. Spikelets subtended by spiny cup-like involucre. Bristles red or purplish or entire spikelets purple. Fertile spikelets sessile; 2–3 in the cluster; ovate; dorsally compressed; acuminate; 5–7 mm long; falling entire. Inner bristles longer than outer; with longest bristle scarcely emergent; 2–5 mm long; rigid; retrorsely scaberulous; pubescent; spinose. Glumes dissimilar, shorter than spikelet; thinner than fertile lemma. Basal sterile florets barren; with palea. Fertile lemma ovate, coriaceous. Caryopsis with adherent pericarp; ellipsoid; dorsally compressed; 3 mm long.
Habitat & location: Occasional in dry sandy soils and low hills. Photographed at Velugonda.

Thanks, …, for a new addition to efi.

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