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Polypogon monspeliensis

(Annual Rabbit's-Foot Grass)

Common Names

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Click on the language to view common names.

Common Names in Dutch:

Baardgras

Common Names in English:

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

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 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

Size/Age/Growth

Size: 6-12" tall.

Habitat

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

Typically found at an altitude of 0 to 5,727 meters (0 to 18,789 feet).[3]

Biology

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Growth

Sunlight: Sun Exposure: Sun to Partial Shade.

Taxonomy

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Unambiguous Synonyms

  1. Alopecurus aristatus Gouan var. monspeliensis (L.) Huds.
  2. Alopecurus monspeliensis L.
  3. Alopecurus monspeliensis Linnaeus, Sp. Pl. 1: 61. 1753.
  4. Phleum monospliense (L.) Koeler
  5. Polypogon monspeliensis (L.) Desf. , 1798

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

Similar Species

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Members of the genus Polypogon

ZipcodeZoo has pages for 73 species, subspecies, varieties, forms, and cultivars in this genus:

P. adscendens · P. affinis · P. alopecuroides · P. alopecurus · P. ascendens · P. australe · P. australis (Chilean Rabbit's-Foot Grass) · P. breviaristatus · P. cachinalensis · P. chaetotropis · P. chilensis · P. chonoticus · P. confertiflorum · P. crinitus · P. cruralis (Early Zanclognatha) · P. demissus · P. elongatus (Streambank Rabbitsfoot Grass) · P. elongatus var. muticus · P. elongatus var. strictus · P. exasperatus · P. fasciculatus · P. flavescens · P. fugax (Asia Minor Bluegrass) · P. glomeratus · P. griquensis · P. higegaweri · P. hissaricus · P. hybrid · P. imberbis · P. intermedius · P. interruptus (Ditch Rabbit'sfootgrass) · P. interuptus · P. ivanovae · P. linearis · P. litoralis · P. littoralis · P. littoralis f. subviolaceus · P. lunalis · P. lutosus · P. magellanicus · P. maritimum · P. maritimus (Mediterranean Rabbitsfoot Grass) · P. minutiflorus · P. mollis · P. monspelensis · P. monspeliense · P. monspeliensis (Annual Rabbit's-Foot Grass) · P. monspeliensis f. argentinus · P. mospeliensis · P. paniceus · P. parvulus · P. plumigeralis · P. polypogonoides · P. polysetus · P. pulchellescens · P. pygmeus · P. racemosus · P. schimperianus · P. semiverticillatus · P. setosus · P. spicatus · P. strictus · P. strigilatus · P. subspathaceum · P. subspathaceus · P. subspicatus · P. tenellus · P. tenellus var. tenellus · P. tentacularius · P. tenuis · P. vaginatus · P. viridis (Beardless Rabbit'sfootgrass) · P. viviparum (Mexican Barracuda)

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 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. [back]
  2. "Polypogon monspeliensis". in Flora of China Vol. 22 Page 348, 362. Missouri Botanical Garden Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]
  3. Mean = 498.860 meters (1,636.680 feet), Standard Deviation = 713.960 based on 2,003 observations. Altitude information for each observation from British Oceanographic Data Centre. [back]
Last Revised: 7/1/2009