Wild Sugarcane

A very common grass in gravelly river beds which are usually nearly dry except during floods.

There are numerous local strains comprising a complex series of chromosome numbers. This species hybridizes readily with cultivated sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum) and is used in sugarcane breeding programs. The name S. spontaneum var. juncifolium Hackel (S. juncifo-lium (Hackel) Janaki-Ammal) has been applied to extreme forms with the leaf blades narrowed to the midrib along their whole length.

This species is a good forage grass and an efficient soil binder.

Asian plants with the leaves narrowed to the midrib towards the base and with a more or less triangular ligule are referable to subsp. spontaneum. In contrast, the African subsp. aegyptiacum (Wald.) Hack. has the leaves laminate to the base and the ligule is crescent-shaped. The latter also occurs in parts of the Middle East.

This species flowers and fruits at the end of the rains and is therefore capable of colonising areas such as soil and sand left bare by retreating floods. The root-system is extremely extensive and the grass acts as an effective sand-binder. If it should be burned in the dry season it may well be ousted by Imperata and perhaps other species of Saccharum.

Perennials; rhizomes and culms erect, farinose below the nodes, hairy below the inflorescence. Ligule obtuse, about 2 mm long, shortly ciliate. Inflorescence a large panicle of about 20 cm long, branches erect, rachis and pedicels slender. Spikelets paired, monomorphic, lanceolate, 3-5 mm long, usually dark-brown, whitish and pointed above, the callus with silky hairs; glumes persistent, pointed, coriaceous at the base; lower glume ciliate on margins, 3-5 mm long, 2-keeled; upper glume boat-shaped, margins ciliate, slightly smaller than the lower, 1-keeled; lower lemma oblong, fringed at the apex, margins ciliate, about 3 mm long, nerves obscure; palea wanting; upper lemma linear-elliptical, pointed, slightly fringed, about 3 mm long; palea about 1 mm long, upper margin fringed. Caryopsis about 1.5 mm long, embryo 2/3 the length of the grain. Widely distributed in the warmer regions of Old World.

Perennial, with long rhizomes. Culms 1–4 m tall, 0.4–1 cm in diam., 5–10-noded, often hollow in center, nodes bearded, softly pilose below inflorescence. Leaf sheaths pilose at mouth and margin, sometimes tuberculate-pilose throughout; leaf blades 60–180 × 0.2–0.8 cm, glaucous, glabrous, margins serrate, tapering to midrib at base, apex long attentuate; ligule brown, 2–8 mm. Panicle 20–40 cm, axis silky pilose; racemes 4–17 cm; rachis internodes 1.5–5 mm, pilose with long silky hairs. Spikelets 3–4 mm; callus hairs 3–4 times length of spikelet; lower glume papery and dark brown below middle at maturity, membranous and pallid above, back glabrous, margins ciliate above, apex acuminate; lower lemma ovate-lanceolate, equal to glumes; upper lemma linear or linear-oblong, awnless. Lodicules ciliate. Anthers 3, 1.5–2 mm. Fl. and fr. Jul–Sep. 2n = 40–128.

Tall rhizomatous perennial; culms 2-4 m high or more. Leaf-blades 0.5-2 m long, up to 7.5 mm wide, gradually tapered towards the base into a narrow wing on either side of the petiole, glaucous. Panicle 25-40 (-60) cm long, the peduncle usually hairy; racemes 3-15 cm long, usually much longer than the supporting branches, the internodes and pedicels hirsute. Spikelets all alike, 2.5-5(-7) mm long, the callus bearded with silky white hairs 2-3 times as long as the spikelet; glumes equal, subcoriaceous in the lower third, glabrous on the back, often ciliate on the margins above; lower lemma lanceolateelliptic, ciliate on the margins; upper lemma very narrow, very shortly awned.

Warmer regions of Old World.

Anhui, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hainan, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Taiwan, Xinjiang, Xizang, Yunnan, Zhejiang [Afghanistan, Bhutan, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Myanmar, New Guinea, Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Turkmenistan, Vietnam; Africa, SW Asia, Australia, Pacific Islands].

Distribution: Pakistan (Sind, Punjab, N.W.F.P., Gilgit & Kashmir); widely distributed in the warmer regions of the Old World.

200-1700 m

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

Mountain slopes, gravelly river beds, low grassy places, forming colonies; below 2000 m.

Saccharum arenicola Ohwi, Bull. Tokyo Sci: Mus. 18: 2. 1947.
Saccharum spontaneum L. var. roxburghii Honda., Bot. Mag. Tokyo 37: 302. 1924; Monogr. 395. 1930.
Saccharum spontaneum var. roxburghii Honda, Bot. Mag. Tokyo 39: 1925; Hsu, Fl. Taiwan 5: 691. 1978

Imperata spontanea (Linnaeus) P. Beauvois; Saccharum spontaneum var. roxburghii Honda.