Themeda triandra

• Common Names
• Description
• Biology
• Taxonomy
• Similar Species
• More Info
• Further Reading
• Notes

Common Names

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]

Genus Themeda

Perennial or annual , often coarse . Culms tufted . Leaf sheaths keeled ; leaf blades linear ; ligule short, membranous or papery . Inflorescence a leafy compound panicle composed of short racemes ; each raceme on a short peduncle subtended by a sheathing spatheole , loosely arranged or gathered into fan-shaped spathate fascicles. Raceme comprising 2 pairs of large sessile homogamous spikelets at base forming an involucre, with 1-2(-5) fertile pairs above and a terminal triad , these usually deciduous, rarely raceme shed as a whole; internodes and pedicels linear. Sessile spikelet subterete or dorsally compressed ; callus mostly acute to pungent , sometimes obtuse , bearded ; lower glume usually leathery, margins rounded , incurving, keeled only near apex, obtuse; upper glume awnless; lower floret reduced to a hyaline lemma; upper lemma stipitiform, entire, passing into a geniculate awn with pubescent column, occasionally awnless. Pedicelled spikelet mostly larger than sessile, narrowly lanceolate, resembling homogamous; callus slender, pedicel-like; true pedicel reduced. x = 10.

Twenty-seven species:tropical and subtropical regions of the Old World, mainly in Asia; 13 species (four endemic) in China.

The number of spikelets in a raceme refers to the total of homogamous, sessile, and pedicelled spikelets. Hence racemes with seven spikelets (division 1a of the key ) have only one fertile sessile spikelet and one awn. Racemes with more than one awn have more than seven spikelets.

Most species of this genus are used for forage when young.[2]

Physical Description

Habitat

Typically found at an altitude of 0 to 3,687 meters (0 to 12,096 feet).[3]

Biology

Growth

Culture: Space 9-12" apart.

Sunlight: Sun Exposure: Sun to Partial Shade.

Moisture: Drought Tolerance: High

Taxonomy

Notes

Name Status: Accepted Name . Latest taxonomic scrutiny: 05-Apr-2001

Similar Species

Members of the genus Themeda

ZipcodeZoo has pages for 54 species, subspecies, varieties, forms, and cultivars in this genus:

T. anathera · T. arguens (Christmas Grass) · T. arundinacea · T. australis · T. avenacea · T. brachyantha · T. capitata · T. caudata · T. chinensis · T. ciliata · T. cymbaria · T. dacruzii · T. echinata · T. effusa · T. foliosa · T. forskalii · T. forskallii · T. frondosa · T. gigantea · T. gigantea var. avenacea · T. gigantea var. latifrons · T. gigantea var. longispatha · T. gossweileri · T. helferi · T. hookeri · T. huttonensis · T. idjenensis · T. imberbis · T. intermedia · T. japonica · T. laxa · T. longispatha · T. minor · T. mooneyi · T. novoguineensis · T. prostrata · T. pseudotremula · T. quadrivalvis (Kangaroo Grass) · T. quadrivalvis var. Quadrivalvis · T. saxicola · T. serratifolia · T. strigosa · T. subsericans · T. tremula · T. triandra (Kangaroo Grass) · T. triandra australis · T. triandra japonica · T. triandra var. major · T. triandra var. vulgaris · T. trichiata · T. unica · T. villosa (Lyons Grass Themeda Villosa) · T. yuanmounensis · T. yunnanensis

More Info

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Further Reading

• Annals of the South African Museum. Annale van die Suid-Afrikaanse Museum. Cape Town [etc., South African Museum, etc.] ENG url p. 388.
• Botanisches Zentralblatt; referierendes Organ für das Gesamtgebiet der Botanik. Jena [etc.]G. Fischer [etc.] GER url p. 394, p. 499, p. 9.
• Bulletin de gographie botanique. Le Mans: Au sige de la Socit, 1911-1919. FRE url p. 142, p. 77.
• Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History). London: BM(NH) ENG url p. 119, p. 156, p. 386, p. 388, p. 389.
• Bulletin of the Natural History Museum. Andover: Intercept. ENG url p. 198, p. 202, p. 207, p. 217, p. 221, p. 236.
• Die Flora der deutschen Schutzgebiete in der Su?dsee /von Karl Schumann und Karl Lauterbach. 1901 Leipzig: verlag von Gebru?der Borntraeger, 1901 [i.e. 1900] GER url p. 173.
• Experiment station record. Washington: G.P.O., 1889-1946. ENG url p. 362.
• Inventory of seeds and plants imported / U.S. Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Plant Industry. Washington, D.C.: G.P.O., 1914-1924. ENG url p. 100, p. 29, p. 3, p. 71, p. 97.
• Just's botanischer jahresbericht. Systematisch geordnetes repertorium der botanischen literatur aller länder. Berlin, Gebr. Borntraeger, 1874-98; GER url p. 139, p. 16, p. 165, p. 17, p. 279, p. 28, p. 29, p. 346, p. 85.
• Manual of vascular plants of the lower Yangtze Valley, China. Corvallis, Oregon State College[1958] ENG url p. 486, p. 617.
• Naturwissenschaftliche Wochenschrift. Jena [etc.]G. Fischer [etc.] GER url p. 532.
• South African journal of natural history. Pretoria, South African Biological Society. ENG url p. 11.
• South African journal of science. [Marshalltown, Transvaal: South African Association for the Advancement of Science, ENG url p. 15, p. 17, p. 18, p. 21, p. 22, p. 420.
• The Journal of the College of Science, Imperial University of Tokyo, Japan = Tokyo Teikoku Daigaku kiyo. Rika. Tokyo, Japan: The University, 1898-1925. ENG url p. 342, p. 569.
• The Victorian naturalist. [Melbourne]Field Naturalists Club of Victoria. ENG url p. 152.
• 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

• 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 December 01, 2007. http://www.gbif.org Mediated distribution data from 12 providers.

Data Sources

Accessed through GBIF Data Portal December 01, 2007:

• Australian National Herbarium
• , Australian National Herbarium
• Herbarium of the University of Aarhus, The AAU Herbarium Database
• International Plant Genetic Resources Institute(IPGRI), The System-wide Information Network for Genetic Resources
• Missouri Botanical Garden, Missouri Botanical Garden
• National Herbarium of New South Wales, NSW herbarium collection
• National Herbarium of New South Wales, Plants of Papua New Guinea

Identifiers

• Biodiversity Heritage Library NamebankID: 2576516
• Catalogue of Life Accepted Name Code: ITS-42209
• Global Biodiversity Information Facility Taxonkey: 13754307
• Globally Unique Identifier: urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:52170-3
• Zipcode Zoo Species Identifier: 448040

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. Shou-liang Chen & Sylvia M. Phillips "Themeda". in Flora of China Vol. 22 Page 572, 633. Published by Science Press (Beijing) and Missouri Botanical Garden Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]
3. Mean = 425.560 meters (1,396.194 feet), Standard Deviation = 702.230 based on 913 observations. Altitude information for each observation from British Oceanographic Data Centre. [back]

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