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Urochloa mosambicensis

(African Liverseed Grass)

Common Names

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Click on the language to view common names.

Common Names in Afrikaans:

Sabigras

Common Names in English:

African Liverseed Grass, Gonya Grass, Sabi Grass

Common Names in Russian:

Urokhloia Trekhrazdel´naia

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

Habit: Graminoid

Habitat

Typically found at an altitude of 0 to 1,953 meters (0 to 6,407 feet).[2]

Biology

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Reproduction

Duration: Perennial

Taxonomy

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Unambiguous Synonyms

  1. Panicum mosambicense Hack.
  2. Urochloa pullulans Stapf var. mosambicensis (Hack.) Stapf

Notes

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

Place of publication : J. Bot. 69:54. 1931

Name verified on 07-Mar-1995 by ARS Systematic Botanists. Last updated: 22-May-1997

Similar Species

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Members of the genus Urochloa

ZipcodeZoo has pages for 111 species, subspecies, varieties, forms, and cultivars in this genus. Here are just 100 of them:

U. acuminata · U. adspersa (Dominican Signal Grass) · U. advena · U. albicoma · U. ambigua · U. argentea · U. aristatum · U. arizonica (Arizona Signal Grass) · U. arrecta (African Signal Grass) · U. atrisola · U. bifalcigera · U. bolbodes · U. brachyphylla · U. brachyura · U. brizantha (Palisade Signal Grass) · U. bulbodes · U. chennaveeraiana · U. ciliatissima (Almejita Signalgrass) · U. cimicina (Summer Grass) · U. comata · U. cordata · U. decidua · U. decumbens (Surinam Grass (Jamaica)) · U. deflexa (False Signal Grass) · U. dictyoneura · U. discifera · U. distachya (Tropical Signalgrass) · U. echinolaenoides · U. eminii · U. engleri · U. eruciformis · U. extensa · U. fasciculata (Brown-Top Signal Grass) · U. foliosa · U. fusca · U. fuscata · U. fusca var. reticulata (Browntop Signalgrass) · U. fusiformis · U. geniculata · U. gilesii · U. glabra · U. glumaris (Thurston Grass) · U. gorinii · U. helopus · U. holosericea · U. humidicola · U. hybrida · U. insculpta · U. jaliscana · U. javanica · U. jinshaicola · U. kurzii · U. lata · U. longifolia · U. lorentziana · U. marathensis · U. maxima (Tanganyika Grass) · U. maxima var. maxima · U. megastachya · U. meziana · U. mollis · U. mosambicensis (African Liverseed Grass) · U. multiculma · U. munae · U. mutica (Bankrotgrass (South Africa)) · U. notochthona · U. novemnervia · U. oblita · U. oligobrachiata (Weak Signalgrass) · U. oligotricha · U. ophryodes · U. panicoides (Panic Liverseed Grass) · U. panicoides var. panicoides · U. panicoides var. pubescens · U. paniculata · U. paspaloides · U. paucispicata · U. piligera (Wattle Signalgrass) · U. plantaginea (Plantain Signal Grass) · U. platynota · U. platyphylla (Broad-Leaf Signalgrass) · U. platyrrhachis · U. polyphylla · U. praetervisa · U. pubescens · U. pubigera · U. pullalans · U. pullulans · U. quintasii · U. ramosa (Branched Signal Mgrass) · U. reptans (Sprawling Signal Grass) · U. rhodesiensis · U. rudis · U. ruschii · U. ruziziensis · U. sclerochlaena · U. semialata · U. semiundulata · U. setigera · U. stolonifera

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 21, 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. Mean = 401.170 meters (1,316.175 feet), Standard Deviation = 420.900 based on 87 observations. Altitude information for each observation from British Oceanographic Data Centre. [back]
Last Revised: 7/2/2009