Saccharum officinarum |
Saccharum spontaneum |
|
---|---|---|
sugarcane |
wild sugarcane |
|
Habit | Plants with short rhizomes. | Plants with long rhizomes. |
Culms | 3-6 m tall, 2-5 cm thick, clumped, glabrous throughout or nearly so, lower internodes swollen. |
2-4 m tall, 0.6-2 cm thick, solitary or few together. |
Sheaths | sometimes ciliate at the collar margins; auricles present; ligules 2-3 mm; blades 70-150 cm long, 20-60 mm wide, usually glabrous, occasionally with hairs on the adaxial surfaces. |
usually glabrous; ligules 1.5-3 mm; blades 50-100 cm long, 10-25 mm wide, usually glabrous, markedly hirsute above the ligules. |
Peduncles | 20-80 cm, glabrous; panicles 50-100 cm long, to 20 cm wide, lanceolate; rachises 30-80 cm, glabrous; primary branches 10-25 cm, appressed to spreading; rame internodes 3-6 mm, glabrous. |
pilose; panicles 40-70 cm, narrowly oblong to widely ovate, rachises 25-50 cm, densely pilose; primary branches 2.5-7 cm. |
Pedicels | 2-5 mm, glabrous. |
1.5-3 mm, ciliate. |
Sessile | spikelets 3-5 mm long, 0.8-0.9 mm wide, white to gray. |
spikelets 3.5-7 mm. |
Callus | hairs 6-10 mm, exceeding the spikelets, white; lower glumes glabrous, 2-4-veined; upper glumes 3-veined; lower lemmas 3-4.5 mm, 2-3-veined; upper lemmas without veins, entire; awns absent; lodicule veins not extending into hairlike projections; anthers 3. |
hairs to 12 mm; glumes glabrous over the back, ciliate toward the tip; lower lemmas about 3 mm; upper lemmas subequal to the lower lemmas, entire; awns absent; anthers 3. |
Pedicellate | spikelets similar to the sessile spikelets. |
spikelets similar to the sessile spikelets. |
2n | = 80. |
= 20, 24-30, 32, 36, 38, 40, 48-60, 64, 69. |
Saccharum officinarum |
Saccharum spontaneum |
|
Distribution |
AL; FL; LA; MS; TX; PR; Virgin Islands |
HI; PR |
Discussion | Saccharum officinarum is native to tropical Asia and the Pacific islands. It is cultivated for sugar production in various parts of the world, including Texas, Louisiana, and Florida. It is also becoming popular as an ornamental plant for gardens in warmer parts of the contiguous United States, and appears to be established in some parts of the southeastern United States. A number of different, clonally propagated color forms are available. It hybridizes with S. spontaneum (see discussion above). (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Saccharum spontaneum is a weedy species, native to tropical Africa and Asia, that is now established in Mesoamerica but not, so far as is known, in the Flora region. It is listed as a noxious weed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, but it is grown in breeding programs as a source of potentially useful genes for S. officinarum (sugar cane), with which it readily hybridizes. Because of the potential economic damage of uncontrolled hybridization between S. spontaneum and S. officinarum, the U.S. Department of Agriculture should be notified of plants found growing outside a controlled planting. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 25, p. 614. | FNA vol. 25, p. 614. |
Parent taxa | Poaceae > subfam. Panicoideae > tribe Andropogoneae > Saccharum | Poaceae > subfam. Panicoideae > tribe Andropogoneae > Saccharum |
Sibling taxa | ||
Name authority | L. | L. |
Web links |