Ekra

This is a polymorphic species showing much variability in the disposition of hairs on the glumes. Sometimes the spikelets are slightly dimorphic, with the sessile spikelet almost glabrous and the pedicelled one strongly pilose. This species has a more profusely branched panicle with shorter racemes than others in China.

The stout clumps are useful in erosion control. This grass is also used for forage when young.

This gigantic tufted grass is of little value as a fodder plant but the strong culms can be used for the walls of huts.

A number of specimens collected in Pakistan show some intermediacy between Saccharum griffithii and Saccharum ravennae. These plants are a heterogeneous collection expressing their intermediacy in several ways including distribution of indumentum on the glumes of the sessile spikelet, long awns in plants otherwise apparently Saccharum griffithii or yellow hairs and narrow panicles in plants which seem to be Saccharum ravennae. It is probable that these specimens are the hybrid Saccharum griffthii x ravennae and their heterogeneity suggests that they are the products of introgression between populations. Examples to be seen in herbaria include: R.R. & I.D. Stewart 18893 (RAW), 22957 (K, RAW); M. Inayat Khan 20323 (K, RAW), 20324 (K); R.R. & I.D. Stewart & E. Nasir 22879 (RAW); M.A. Siddiqi & A. Rahman Beg 26735 (K, RAW); S.A. Harriss 16785 (K); J. F. Duthie 13992, 13613 (K); C.B. Clarke 31250 (K); Hassan ud Din 15 (K); R.R. Stewart 26673 (K).

Perennial, forming large clumps. Culms (1.5–)2–3(–4) m tall, ca. 1 cm in diam., lower nodes yellowish villous, glabrous below panicle. Lower leaf sheaths hirsute with tubercle-based hairs, upper sheaths smooth; leaf blades 50–120 × 0.5–1.8 cm, woolly above ligule with long yellowish hairs, otherwise glabrous, margins scabrid, tapering to midrib at base, apex filiform; ligule a narrow rim, back villous with ca. 2 mm hairs. Panicle dense, lobed, 30–50 × 10–15 cm, grayish sometimes tinged pink, axis glabrous, branches much branched; racemes short, crowded, with 3–4 joints; rachis internodes 2–3 mm, silky villous. Spikelets 3–6 mm, purplish; callus hairs as long as spikelet; lower glume lanceolate, membranous, back glabrous or pilose with spreading hairs, keels scabrid, apex attenuate, minutely notched; lower lemma 3/4 as long to subequaling glumes; upper lemma elliptic, apex acute, awned; awn almost straight, 4–8 mm. Anthers 3, 2.1–2.2 mm. Fl. and fr. autumn. 2n = 20, 60.

Tall caespitose perennial; culms up to 4.5 m high. Leaf-blades up to 100 cm long, 3-20 mm wide, flat. Panicle 25-70 cm long, dense or sublobate, the axis markedly angular (usually 6-angled) and the peduncle glabrous; racemes 1.5-3 cm long, much shorter than the supporting branches, the internodes and pedicels hirsute with hairs 3-6 mm long. Spikelets slightly heteromorphous, 3-6(-6.5) mm long, the callus bearded with whitish, greyish or sometimes yellowish hairs up to about 4 mm long; glumes equal, membranous, those of the sessile spikelet glabrous, the lower scabrid on the keels, or sometimes with a few hairs at the base, those of the pedicelled spikelet sparsely to moderately hairy on the back, the hairs shorter than those of the callus; lower lemma lanceolate, glabrous; upper lemma narrow, attenuate with an awn 2.5-10 mm long, well exserted from the glumes.

Xinjiang [Afghanistan, NW India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Tajikstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan; SW Asia, S Europe; introduced in America].

Distribution: Pakistan (Sind, Baluchistan, Punjab, N.W.F.P., Gilgit & Kashmir): northern India and Southwest Asia westwards to the Mediterranean region.

Fl. & Fr. Per.: (August-) September-December.

Sandy places; 1200–3000 m.

Andropogon ravennae Linnaeus, Sp. Pl., ed. 2, 2: 1481. 1763; Erianthus ravennae (Linnaeus) P. Beauvois.

Erianthus jamaicensis (Trin.) Anderss. Oefv. Sv. Vet.-Akad
Forh. 1855 : 163. 1855.
Saccharum jamaicense Trin. Mem. Acad. St. Petersb. VI. 2 : 312. 1832. Erianthus Ravennae jamaicensis Hack, in DC. Monog. Phan. 6 : 141. 1889.
Stems 1-2 m. tall; leaf -sheaths silky-villous on the inside; blades up to 6 dm. long and 6 mm. broad, very acuminate, glaucous beneath, the upper surface and the margins rough ; panicle 2 dm. long, linear-lanceolate, the axis somewhat flexuous and roughened, the internodes a little longer than the pedicels and shorter than the spikelets, slender, linear, furnished with hairs longer than themselves ; spikelets 5.5-6 mm. long, lanceolate, pale, about equaling the involucral hairs at the base, the outer 2 scales chartaceous, 3nerved, somewhat caudate-acuminate, the first one, especially near the margins, with scattered hairs almost as long as themselves, the second scale glabrous, the third scale empty, faintly 5-nerved, membranous, the fourth scale hyaline, enclosing a hermaphrodite flower, and bearing at the apex a bristle-like straight awn about as long as the scale.
Type locality : Jamaica.
Distribution : Known only from the type locality. This may be only a form of the Old World E. Ravennae (L.) Beauv., perhaps introduced into Jamaica and escaped from cultivation. It has not been reported recently from there.

Perennials, Terrestrial, not aquatic, Stems nodes swollen or brittle, Stems erect or ascending, Stems caespitose, tufted, or clustered, Stems terete, round in cross section, or polygonal, Stem nodes bearded or hairy, Stem internodes solid or spongy, Stems with inflorescence 1-2 m tall, Stems with inflorescence 2-6 m tall, Stems, culms, or scapes exceeding basal leaves, Leaves mostly cauline, Leaves conspicuously 2-ranked, distichous, Leaves sheathing at base, Leaf sheath mostly open, or loose, Leaf sheath smooth, glabrous, Leaf sheath hairy at summit, throat, or collar, Leaf sheath and blade differentiated, Leaf blades linear, Leaf blades 1-2 cm wide, Leaf blades mostly flat, Leaf blades mostly glabrous, Ligule present, Ligule a fringed, ciliate, or lobed membrane, Inflorescence terminal, Inflorescence an open panicle, openly paniculate, branches spreading, Inflorescence solitary, with 1 spike, fascicle, glomerule, head, or cluster per stem or culm, Inflorescence branches more than 10 to numerous, Flowers bisexual, Spikelets pedicellate, Spikelets sessile or subsessile, Spikelets dorsally compressed or terete, Spikelet less than 3 mm wide, Spikelets with 1 fertile floret, Spikelets with 2 florets, Spikelets pa ired at rachis nodes, Spikelets all alike and fertille, Spikelets in paired units, 1 sessile, 1 pedicellate, Spikelets bisexual, Inflorescence disarticulating between nodes or joints of rachis, rachis fragmenting, Spikelets disarticulating below the glumes, Spikelets falling with parts of disarticulating rachis or pedicel, Inflorescence branches deciduous, falling intact, Spikelets conspicuously hairy , Rachilla or pedicel glabrous, Glumes present, empty bracts, Glumes 2 clearly present, Glumes equal or subequal, Glumes equal to or longer than adjacent lemma, Glume surface hairy, villous or pilose, Glumes 3 nerved, Lemmas thin, chartaceous, hyaline, cartilaginous, or membranous, Lemma 1 nerved, Lemma apex acute or acuminate, Lemma awnless, Lemma with 1 awn, Lemma awn less than 1 cm long, Lemma awned from tip, Lemma margins thin, lying flat, Lemma straight, Callus or base of lemma evidently hairy, Callus hairs shorter than lemma, Callus hairs equal to lemma, Stamens 3, Styles 2-fid, deeply 2-branched, Stigmas 2, Fruit - caryopsis.

Tripidium ravennae, synonym Saccharum ravennae (and many others), with the common names ravennagrass and elephant grass, is a species of grass in the genus Tripidium. It is native to Southern Europe, Western Asia and South Asia. It is known in North America as an introduced species, where it is sometimes an invasive and troublesome noxious weed.