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Hemarthria altissima

(Batavian Quick Grass)

Common Names

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Common Names in English:

African Jointgrass, Batavian Quick Grass, Halt Grass, Limpo Grass, Limpograss, Red Quick, Red Swamp Grass, Snake Grass, Swamp Couch

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]

Genus Hemarthria

Perennial , rarely annual . Culms usually prostrate and rooting at lower nodes. Leaf blades linear , flat; ligule narrow, membranous, margin ciliate . Inflorescence composed of single axillary racemes ; racemes solitary or in groups in upper leaf axils , dorsiventral, articulation line usually oblique but racemes tough, not or very tardily disarticulating ; rachis internodes thickened, oblong-angular, adnate to adjacent pedicel. Sessile spikelet appressed to hollow in rachis, dorsally compressed (terete in H. sibirica) ; callus obtuse to cuneate, rarely truncate ; lower glume narrowly elliptic , rigidly herbaceous to leathery, smooth , marginally 2-keeled, indistinctly winged above, obtuse to caudate or rarely 2-cleft; upper glume sometimes adnate to internode, mucronate or awned ; lower floret barren, without palea; upper floret bisexual, with entire awnless lemma. Pedicelled spikelet similar to sessile, but base truncate and lacking callus; pedicel similar to adnate rachis internode, junction marked by a line. x = 9, 10.

Fourteen species: tropical and subtropical regions of the Old World; introduced in America; six species (one endemic) in China.

This is a genus of aquatic or semi-aquatic grasses concentrated in SE Asia. At first sight it is difficult to distinguish the sessile and pedicelled spikelets because they look very similar and, since the pedicel is fused to the rachis internode, both spikelets are in effect sessile. However, the sessile spikelet of a pair can be distinguished by its basal callus, which normally has an oblique articulation line beneath it. The strongly bilateral racemes have all the sessile spikelets on one side and all the pedicelled spikelets on the other.[2]

Physical Description

Species Hemarthria altissima

Perennial , or sometimes annual . Culms loosely tufted to decumbent or stoloniferous , rooting at lower nodes, ascending up to 1.6 m tall, nodes glabrous . Leaf sheaths loose , compressed , keeled , usually shorter than internodes, glabrous except near mouth ; leaf blades linear , 5-25 × 0.3-0.6 cm, acute; ligule ca. 0.3 mm. Racemes solitary or several per node, 5-10 cm, semicylindrical, articulation line oblique , tardily disarticulating . Sessile spikelet longer than adjacent internode, 5-7 mm; callus triangular, 0.8-2 mm; lower glume elliptic-oblong, leathery, flat on back, often with subapical constriction, apex obtuse to emarginate ; upper glume papery, adnate to rachis, 4-7 mm, apex obtuse to acute; lower floret 3.5-5.2 mm; upper floret 3.2-4.6 mm. Pedicelled spikeletnarrowly lanceolate, lower glume acute, upper glume acuminate. 2n = 20, 36. [source]

Habit: Graminoid • Growth Form: Rhizomatous • Shape and Orientation: Decumbent

Flowers: Flower Conspicuous: No

Seeds: Fruit/Seed Conspicuous: No • Cold Stratification Required: No

Foliage: Foliage Color: Green • Foliage Porosity Summer: Moderate • Foliage Porosity Winter: Moderate • Foliage Texture: Medium • Fall Conspicuous: No • Leaf Retention: No

Size/Age/Growth

Active Growth Period: Spring , Summer, Fall • Growth Rate: Moderate • After Harvest Regrowth Rate: Moderate • Mature Height (feet): 1.4 • Vegetative Spread Rate: Moderate • Lifespan: Lifespan

Habitat

In or near water, damp places; 700-1900 m. [3].

Typically found at an altitude of 0 to 2,085 meters (0 to 6,841 feet).[4]

Biology

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Reproduction

Duration: Perennial • Coppice Potential: No • Progagated by Bulbs: No • Propagated by Bare Root: No • Propagated by Container: No • Propagated by Corms: No • Propagated by Cuttings: No • Propagated by Seed: No • Propagated by Sod: No • Propagated by Sprigs: Yes • Propagated by Tubers: No • Fruit/Seed Persistence: No

Growth

Soil: Adapted to Medium Textured: Adapted to Medium Textured Soils • Adapted to Coarse Textured Soils: No • Anaerobic Tolerance: Medium • Salinity Tolerance: None • CaCO3 Tolerance: Low • Minimum pH: 5.5 • Maximum pH: 7.5 • Fertility Requirement: High

Sunlight: Shade Tolerance: Intolerant

Moisture: Drought Tolerance: Low • Minimum Precipitation: 35 • Maximum Precipitation: 70 • Moisture Use: High

Temperature: Minimum Temperature (F): 28 • Minimum Frost Free Days: 240

Taxonomy

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Unambiguous Synonyms

  1. Hemarthria compressa (Linnaeus F.) R. Brown Var. altissima (Poiret) Maire
  2. Hemarthria compressa var. fasciculata (Hackel) Keng
  3. Manisuris altissima (Poir.) A. S. Hitchc.
  4. R. fasciculata Lamarck, Nom. Illeg. Superfl.
  5. Rottboellia altissima Poiret, Voy. Barbarie 2: 105. 1789
  6. Rottboellia compressa Linnaeus F. Var. fasciculata Hackel

Notes

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

Place of publication : Bull . Misc. Inform. Kew 1934:109. 1934

Name verified on 18-Apr-2001 by ARS Systematic Botanists. Last updated: 05-Aug-2002

Similar Species

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Members of the genus Hemarthria

ZipcodeZoo has pages for 24 species, subspecies, varieties, forms, and cultivars in this genus:

H. altissima (Batavian Quick Grass) · H. capensis · H. compressa · H. compressa var. fasciculata · H. coromandelina · H. depressa · H. fasciculata · H. foliata · H. glabra · H. guyanensis · H. hamiltoniana · H. humilis · H. japonica · H. laxa · H. longiflora · H. natans · H. protensa · H. sibirica · H. stolonifera · H. subulata · H. uncinata (Mat Grass) · H. uncinata var. spathacea · H. uncinata var. uncinata · H. vaginata

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 December 20, 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. Bi-xing Sun & Sylvia M. Phillips "Hemarthria". in Flora of China Vol. 22 Page 573, 640. Published by Science Press (Beijing) and Missouri Botanical Garden Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]
  3. "Hemarthria altissima". in Flora of China Vol. 22 Page 641, 642. Missouri Botanical Garden Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]
  4. Mean = 380.730 meters (1,249.114 feet), Standard Deviation = 483.680 based on 103 observations. Altitude information for each observation from British Oceanographic Data Centre. [back]
Last Revised: 7/1/2009