Saccharum giganteum |
Saccharum brevibarbe |
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sugarcane plumegrass |
shortbeard plumegrass |
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Habit | Plants rhizomatous. | Plants rhizomatous. | ||||
Culms | 1-2.5 m; nodes sericeous, hairs to 5 mm. |
0.8-2.5 m; nodes glabrous or pubescent. |
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Sheaths | glabrate or glabrous; auricles absent; ligules 2-6 mm; blades usually 35-70 cm long, 8-30 mm wide, adaxial surfaces glabrous or pilose. |
not ciliate; auricles absent; ligules 1-2 mm; blades usually 40-60 cm long, 7-25 mm wide, glabrous. |
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Peduncles | 40-80 cm, pilose; panicles 6-15 cm wide, oblong or lanceolate; rachises 15-30 cm, pilose; lowest nodes densely pilose; primary branches 2-13 cm, ascending or appressed to the rachises; rame internodes 2-5.5 mm, pilose. |
45-75 cm, usually glabrous, occasionally pubescent or minutely pilose; panicles 3-10 cm wide, linear or oblong; rachises (10)30-50 cm, glabrous or sparsely pilose; lowest nodes glabrous or sparsely pilose; primary branches 7-14 cm, appressed; rame internodes 4-6 mm, with hairs. |
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Pedicels | 2.5-5 mm, pilose. |
3-4 mm, with hairs. |
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Sessile | spikelets 4.2-6 mm long, 0.8-1.1 mm wide, straw-colored. |
spikelets 6.5-10.5 mm long, 1.2-1.5 mm wide, purple or straw-colored. |
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Callus | hairs (7)15-20(25) mm, longer than the spikelets, straw-colored or brown; glumes usually glabrous; lower glumes smooth, indistinctly 5-veined; lower lemmas 3-5 mm, without veins; upper lemmas 2.5-3.5 mm, 1-veined, entire; awns 12-26 mm, straight or curved, terete basally; lodicule veins sometimes extending into hairlike projections; anthers 2. |
hairs 3-7 mm, from shorter than to equaling the spikelets, white to straw-colored or brown; lower glumes 5-veined, smooth basally, scabrous distally; lower lemmas 5.5-8 mm, not or indistinctly veined, initially entire, sometimes becoming bifid, teeth 2-2.5 mm; upper lemmas 5.5-8 mm, 0.9-1 times as long as the lower lemmas, 3-veined, entire or bifid; awns 10-22 mm, always flattened below, sometimes spirally coiled; lodicule veins sometimes extending as hairlike projections; anthers 2. |
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Pedicellate | spikelets similar to the sessile spikelets, except frequently pilose. |
spikelets similar to the sessile spikelets. |
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2n | = 30, 60, 90. |
= 60. |
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Saccharum giganteum |
Saccharum brevibarbe |
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Distribution |
AL; AR; DC; DE; FL; GA; IL; KY; LA; MD; MO; MS; NC; NJ; NY; OK; PA; SC; TN; TX; VA
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AL; AR; DE; FL; GA; IL; KY; LA; MD; MS; NC; OK; SC; TN; TX; VA
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Discussion | Saccharum giganteum grows in wet soils of bogs, swales, and swamps. Its range extends from the eastern and southeastern United States to Central America. It is a polymorphic, primarily chasmogamous species that intergrades morphologically with the primarily cleistogamous S. trinii (Hack.) Renvoize in Central America. The combination of long callus hairs and straight awns distinguishes it from all other species of Saccharum in the Flora region. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Saccharum brevibarbe grows only in the southeastern United States. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 25, p. 611. | FNA vol. 25, p. 612. | ||||
Parent taxa | Poaceae > subfam. Panicoideae > tribe Andropogoneae > Saccharum | Poaceae > subfam. Panicoideae > tribe Andropogoneae > Saccharum | ||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||
Synonyms | Erianthus giganteus | |||||
Name authority | (Walter) Pers. | (Michx.) Pers. | ||||
Web links |