Marsh Panic Grass

A vigorous creeping water-grass eaten by buffalo.

Aquatic perennials; culm decumbent and rooting at base, upper parts floating on water, soft, often 1 cm in diam., flowering culm as much as 1 m tall. Blade 10-30 cm long, 8-16 mm wide; sheath glabrous, longer than internode; ligule a ring of hairs, ca. 2 mm long. Panicle open, partially included in upper most sheath, 15-30 cm long, spikelets oblong-lanceolate, ca. 4 mm long, acuminate; lower glume hyaline, acute to truncate, ca. 1 mm long, veins obscure; upper glume and lower lemma equal or subequal, 7-9-veined; lower lemma enclosing a hyaline lower palea of ca. 2/3 length of lower lemma; upper lemma ca. 2.5 mm long, smooth and shiny, indurate, pale at maturity.

Aquatic perennial; culms 25-130 cm high, spongy, erect or ascending from the creeping lower portion, this usually rooting at the nodes. Leaf-blades linear to narrowly lanceolate, (8-)15-30(-50) cm long, 6-14 mm wide, subcordate at the base, flat, glabrous, blunt or sharply acute; sheaths glabrous and ± loose. Panicle ovate or oblong, 10-30 cm long, the branches naked below, the lowermost whorled. Spikelets narrowly lanceolate, 3.24 mm long, glabrous, acute or shortly acuminate, appressed to the branches; lower glume orbicular, hyaline, up to a quarter the length of the spikelet, obtuse or truncate, nerveless; upper glume 7-nerved; lower lemma 9-nerved, its palea well developed or absent; upper lemma pallid, smooth and shining.

Tropics of Asia, southeastwards to Australia.

Tropical Asia and Australia. Taiwan, in shallow water on margins of ponds.

Distribution: Pakistan (Punjab); Nepal, India and Ceylon, through Burma to Southeast Asia and tropical Australia.

700-1100 m

Fl. & Fr. Per.: September-October.

Perennials, Aquatic, leaves emergent, Aquatic, leaves floating on surface, Aquatic, fresh water, Terrestrial, not aquatic, Rhizomes present, Rhizome elongate, creeping, stems distant, Stolons or runners present, Stems nodes swollen or brittle, Stems erect or ascending, Stems geniculate, decumbent, or lax, sometimes rooting at nodes, Stems caespitose, tufted, or clustered, Stems terete, round in cross section, or polygonal, Stems compressed, flattened, or sulcate, Stem internodes solid or spongy, Stems with inflorescence less than 1 m tall, Stems with inflorescence 1-2 m tall, Stems, culms, or s capes exceeding basal leaves, Leaves mostly basal, below middle of stem, 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 lanceolate, Leaf blades 2-10 mm wide, Leaf blades 1-2 cm wide, Leaf blades mostly flat, Leaf blades mostly glabrous, Ligule present, Ligule a fringe of hairs, 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 with 2-10 branches, Inflorescence branches more than 10 to numerous, Lower panicle branches whorled, Flowers bisexual, Spikelets pedicellate, Spikelets dorsally compressed or terete, Spikelet less than 3 mm wide, Spikelets with 1 fertile floret, Spikelets with 2 florets, Spikele t with 1 fertile floret and 1-2 sterile florets, Spikelets solitary at rachis nodes, Spikelets all alike and fertille, Spikelets bisexual, Spikelets disarticulating below the glumes, 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 equal to or longer than spikelet, Glumes 4-7 nerved, Lemma coriaceous, firmer or thicker in texture than the glumes, Lemma 8-15 nerved, Lemma glabrous, Lemma apex acute or acuminate, Lemma awnless, Lemma margins inrolled, tightly covering palea and caryopsis, Lemma straight, Palea present, well developed, Palea about equal to lemma, Stamens 3, Styles 2-fid, deeply 2-branched, Stigmas 2, Fruit - caryopsis, Caryopsis ellipsoid, longitudinally grooved, hilum long-linear.