Zizaniopsis miliacea
Poaceae tribe Oryzeae
giant cutgrass, water millet
1-4 m tall, to 3.5 cm thick, erect or decumbent, glabrous, readily rooting at the nodes when decumbent and producing leafy buds.
annual, 20-500 cm tall, aerenchymatous, sometimes floating.
thick, glabrous;
ligules to 2 cm, glabrous;
blades to 1 m long, 6-30 mm wide, sometimes scabrous, bluish-green, margins scabrous.
aerenchymatous;
auricles present or absent;
ligules membranous or scarious, sometimes absent;
pseudopetioles sometimes present;
blades with parallel veins, cross venation not evident;
abaxial blade epidermes with microhairs and transversely dumbbell-shaped silica bodies;
first seedling leaf without a blade.
to 80+ cm long, usually 4-20 cm wide, open;
pedicels to 10 mm long, apices 0.1-0.4 mm wide.
usually panicles, sometimes racemes or spikes;
disarticulation below the spikelets, not occurring in cultivated taxa.
laterally compressed or terete, with 1 bisexual or unisexual floret, sometimes with 2 sterile florets below the sexual floret, these no more than 1/2 (9/10) the length of the fertile floret;
unisexual spikelets in the same or different panicles;
rachillas not prolonged.
absent or highly reduced, forming an annular ring or lobes at the pedicel apices;
sterile florets 1/8 – 1/2 (9/10) as long as the spikelets;
fertile lemmas 3-14-veined, membranous or coriaceous, apices entire, unawned or with a terminal awn;
paleas similar to the lemmas, 3-10-veined, 1-keeled;
lodicules 2;
anthers usually 6(1-16);
styles 2, bases fused or free, stigmas linear, plumose.
usually caryopses, sometimes achenes, ovoid, oblong, or cylindrical;
embryos of the F+FP or F+PP type, small or elongate, with or without a scutellar tail;
hila usually linear, x = 12, 15, 17.
2.5-4 mm long, 1-2 mm wide, ellipsoid or obovoid, smooth, lustrous, beaked by the persistent style base.
lemmas 5-10 mm, lanceolate to elliptic, glabrous, acuminate or awned, awns to 2 mm;
paleas acuminate or awned, awns to 1 mm;
anthers 2.5-5 mm.
lemmas 4-8 mm, ovate or elliptic, awned, awns to 9 mm;
paleas caudate-acuminate or awned, awns to 1 mm;
style bases 1-3 mm, stigmas 2-6 mm, conspicuously exserted.
= 24.
Zizaniopsis miliacea
Poaceae tribe Oryzeae
Zizaniopsis miliacea grows in shallow, fresh- or brackish-water marshes, swamps, streams, lakes, and ditches. It is most common on the eastern coastal plain of the United States, extending south to Florida and west to Illinois, Oklahoma and Texas. It has also been reported growing as a disjunct in central Mexico (McVaugh 1983).
Fox and Haller (2000) found that decumbent flowering culms readily produce roots and axillary shoots at the nodes. The decumbent culms act as functional stolons, allowing for rapid colonization; thus plants become established up to 3-4 m away from the parent plant.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
The Oryzeae include about 10-12 genera and 70-100 species. Its members are native to temperate, subtropical, and tropical regions. Oryza sativa is one of the world's most important crop species. Four genera are native to the Flora region; two are introduced.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
1. Lemma margins free; fruits achenes, ellipsoid, obovoid, ovoid or subglobose, beaked with a shell-like pericarp. | → 2 |
2. Lemmas of the pistillate spikelets awned; plants emergent, more than 1 m tall | Zizaniopsis |
2. Lemmas of the pistillate spikelets unawned; plants emergent and less than 1 m tall or submerged aquatics | Luziola |
1. Lemmas and paleas clasping along their margins; fruits caryopses, cylindrical or laterally compressed, not beaked. | → 3 |
3. Spikelets unisexual; caryopses terete | Zizcmia |
3. Spikelets bisexual; caryopses laterally compressed or terete. | → 4 |
4. Sterile florets present below the fertile floret, 1/8 – 1/2 (9/10) as long as the spikelets | Oryza |
4. Glumes absent. | → 5 |
5. Leaf blades aerial, not pseudopetiolate, linear to broadly lanceolate; spikelets pedicellate, without stipelike calluses; lemmas unawned; widespread native species | Leersia |
5. Leaf blades floating, pseudopetiolate, elliptic to ovate or ovate-lanceolate; spikelets on stipelike calluses (1)2-10 mm long; lemmas awned; aquatic ornamental species, not known to be established in the Flora region | Hygroryza |
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