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Polypogon monspeliensis

(Annual Beard-Grass, Annual Rabbit's-Foot Grass, Annual Rabbitsfoot grass, Rabbit'sfootgrass, Rabbitfoot Beardgrass, Rabbitfoot Grass, Rabbitfoot Polypogon, Rabbitfootgrass)

Conservation Status

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Population Analysis

  • For the 288,751 species in the Class Liliopsida (Monocotyledons), we average 3.97 observations each in our database; for the Annual Rabbit's-Foot Grass, we have 485 observations. Compared to other species in this Class, this species is extremely common.
  • A two-sample t-test can be used to determine whether the trend in observations of the Annual Rabbit's-Foot Grass is the same as the trend in observations of Liliopsida. Is this species just as common, as a proportion of all observations, as it once was? The answer is no, changes in observation rate of this species significantly differ from changes in observation rate of its Class. (t=3.967, p<0.001)
  • How do observation rates of the Annual Rabbit's-Foot Grass differ from those of Liliopsida? To answer this, we examined the percentage of observerations for Liliopsida that were observations of the Annual Rabbit's-Foot Grass each year. We then correlated this percentage with observation year. If observations of the Annual Rabbit's-Foot Grass are becoming more common relative to other species of Liliopsida, the correlation should be positive, but if it is becoming less common, the correlation should be negative. In fact, the correlation is negative (r=-.26), with a negative slope (m = -.000), suggesting that the Annual Rabbit's-Foot Grass may be in decline relative to other species of Liliopsida. This correlation is statistically significant. (F = 165.69, p<.05)
  • The scatter chart to the right shows the percentage of all observations for Liliopsida each year that were observations of the Annual Rabbit's-Foot Grass.

Taxonomy

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  • Domain: Eukaryota Whittaker & Margulis,1978 - eukaryotes
    • Kingdom: Plantae Haeckel, 1866 - Plants
      • Subkingdom: Viridaeplantae Cavalier-Smith, 1981 - Green Plants
        • Phylum: Magnoliophyta Cronquist, Takhtajan & W. Zimmermann, 1966 - Flowering Plants
          • Subphylum: Spermatophytina (auct.) Cavalier-Smith, 1998 - Seed Plants
            • Infraphylum: Angiospermae auct.
              • Class: Liliopsida Scopoli, 1760 - Monocotyledons
                • Subclass: Commelinidae Takhtajan, 1967
                  • Superorder: Poanae (Small, 1903) Takhtajan, 1997 ex Reveal & Doweld, 1999
                    • Order: Poales Small, 1903
                      • Family: Poaceae (poh-AY-see-ay) (R. Brown) Barnhart, 1895 - Grass Family
                        • Subfamily: Pooideae
                          • Tribe: Aveneae
                            • Genus: Polypogon (pol-lee-POH-gon) Boissier, 1846, nom. cons. - Rabbitsfoot Grass
                              • Specific epithet: monspeliensis (L.) Desf.
                                • Botanical name: Polypogon monspeliensis (L.) Desf.

Unambiguous Synonyms:

  1. Alopecurus monspeliensis Linnaeus, Sp. Pl. 1: 61. 1753.

Notes:

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

Place of publication: Fl. atlant. 1:67. 1798

Name verified on 14-May-1992 by ARS Systematic Botanists. Last updated: 14-Dec-1994

Physical 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]

Species Polypogon monspeliensis:

Annual, tufted. Culms erect or geniculate, up to 60 cm tall. Leaf blades narrowly to broadly linear, 2-13 cm, 2-9 mm wide, adaxial surface and margins scabrid, abaxial surface smooth, apex acute; ligule 2-8 mm. Panicle narrowly oblong in outline, dense, spikelike, sometimes slightly lobed, 1-10 cm, pale green, thickly clothed in yellow bristles. Spikelets narrowly oblong, 1.5-2.5 mm; glumes narrowly obovate-oblong, puberulous, vein scabrid-aculeate, margins ciliate, apex emarginate, apex of lobes slightly acute, awned from sinus; awn 2.5-4 times as long as glume body; lemma obovate, 1-1.2 mm, apex slightly 4-toothed, midvein extended into a fine, straight, readily deciduous, 1.5-2 mm awn; palea as long as lemma. Stamens 3, anthers ca. 0.8 mm. Caryopsis obovate-oblong, ca. 1 mm. Fl. and fr. May-Oct. [source]

Flowers: Bloom Period: April, May. • Flower Color: pale green

Images:

Distribution

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Range and Population

cultivated at Uppsala, Sweden, from seed from Montpellier, France, France (Southwestern Europe, Europe)

North America

Native: Kyushu, Portugal - Azores.

Habitat

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Moist places, streamsides; below 3000 m. This is a widely introduced weed naturalized in most warm-temperate regions[2].

Growth

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Sunlight: Sun Exposure: Sun to Partial Shade.

Similar Species

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Members of the genus Polypogon:

There are approximately 103 species, subspecies, varieties, forms, and cultivars in this genus. Here are just 100 of them: P. adscendens · P. adscensionis · P. affinis · P. alopecuroides · P. alopecurus · P. alpestris · P. ascendens · P. australe · P. australis (Chilean Rabbit's-Foot Grass) · P. brachyatherus · P. brachyphyllus · P. breviaristatus · P. cachinalensis · P. canadense · P. capensis · P. chaetotropis · P. chilensis · P. chonoticus · P. clausonis · P. confertiflorum · P. crinitus · P. cruralis (Early Zanclognatha) · P. cultratum · P. demissus · P. divulsum · P. drummondi · P. elongatum · P. elongatus (Rabbitfoot Grass) · P. elongatus f. minor · P. elongatus var. muticus · P. elongatus var. strictus · P. exasperatus · P. fasciculatus · P. filiformis · P. flavescens · P. fugax (Asia Minor Bluegrass) · P. glomeratus · P. griquensis · P. higegaweri · P. hissaricus · P. hybrid · P. imberbis · P. imberbis f. aristata · P. inaequalis · P. intermedius · P. interruptus (Ditch Polypogon) · P. interruptus var. breviaristatus · P. interuptus · P. ivanovae · P. linearis · P. litoralis · P. littoralis f. subviolaceus · P. lunalis · P. magellanicus · P. maritimum · P. maritimums · P. maritimus (Mediterranean Rabbitsfoot Grass) · P. minutiflorus · P. miser · P. mollis · P. monsepliensis · P. monspeliaca · P. monspeliense · P. monspeliensis (Annual Beard-Grass) · P. monspeliensis f. argentinus · P. monspeliensis var. indicus · P. monspeliensisi · P. mospeliensis · P. paniceus · P. parvulus · P. plumigeralis · P. P.oides · P. polysetus · P. pulchellescens · P. pumilus · P. purpurascens · P. pygmeus · P. racemosum · P. racemosus · P. radicans · P. rioplatensis · P. rioplatensis f. robustus · P. schimperianus · P. sericeus · P. setosus · P. spathaceus · P. spicatus · P. strictus · P. strigilatus · P. subspathaceum · P. subspathaceus · P. subspicatus · P. tarapacanus · P. tataricus · P. tenellus · P. tenellus var. oldfieldii · P. tenellus var. tenellus · P. tentacularius · P. tenuis · P. vaginatus

Bibliography

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  • Bor, N. L. 1960. The grasses of Burma, Ceylon, India, and Pakistan. (Grass BCIP)
  • CIBA-GEIGY, Basel, Switzerland. Documenta CIBA-GEIGY (Grass weeds 1. 1980, 2. 1981; Monocot weeds 3. 1982; Dicot weeds 1. 1988) (Weed CIBA)
  • 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
  • Chinese Academy of Sciences. 1959–. Flora reipublicae popularis sinicae. (F China)
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  • Gould, F. W. 1975. The grasses of Texas. (Grass Tex)
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  • Meikle, R. D. 1977–1985. Flora of Cyprus. (F Cyprus)
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  • Shukla, U. 1996. Grasses of north-eastern India. (Grass NE India)
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More Info

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Notes

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Contributors:

  • "Polypogon monspeliensis". in Flora of China Vol. 22 Page 348, 362. Published by Missouri Botanical Garden Press. Online at EFloras.org.
  • Bisby, F.A., Y.R. Roskov, M.A. Ruggiero, T.M. Orrell, L.E. Paglinawan, P.W. Brewer, N. Bailly, J. van Hertum, eds (2007). Species 2000 & ITIS Catalogue of Life: 2007 Annual Checklist. Species 2000: Reading, U.K.
  • Global Biodiversity Information Facility. Accessed November 16, 2007. http://www.gbif.org Mediated distribution data from 48 providers.
  • USDA, ARS, National Genetic Resources Program. Germplasm Resources Information Network - (GRIN) [Online Database]. National Germplasm Resources Laboratory, Beltsville, Maryland. URL (April 25, 2008)

Data Sources:

Accessed through GBIF Data Portal November 16, 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.
  2. "Polypogon monspeliensis". in Flora of China Vol. 22 Page 348, 362. Missouri Botanical Garden Press. Online at EFloras.org.

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Last Revised: May 18, 2008