grass ID (2) from Hooghly 3/8/12 SK2

[surajit koley]

Sir,

I found this grass beside a railway platform. I could only take a few snaps of this grass through the railings of the platform.

Species : Unknown

Habit & Habitat : small grass, not sure about its height, maybe about 1.5 feet

Date : 19/7/12, 9.41 A.M.

Place : Hooghly

Thank you & Regards,

Surajit Koley

[manoj chandran]

Hai !

This is Brachiaria setigera (Retz.)C.E.Hubb. You can see the arrangement of spikelets is almost on one side of the rachis. The rachis is ribbon like with a thick midrib, so the cross section of the rachis will be triangular (triquetrous rachis). You can see that some of the spikelets towards the base of the raceme are paired (one sessile and one pedicelled), whereas most of the spikelets towards the tip are solitary. On close observation, you can also see a few isolated setae/ long white hair on the rachis. The lower glume is less that quarter the length of the spikelet. The racemes are alternate on the main axis. The leaves are lanceolate with a rounded to subcordate base. All these leads to Brachiaria setigera, a common wasteland grass, usually in shady places and is a good fodder.

Regards...

Manoj Chandran

[surajit koley]

Sir,

I can see all the features you have explained here, except that i am not sure about lower glumes. I assume that those triangular shapes, with lighter shades, at the bases of spikelets (pic no. grass19jul12_BB_DSCN7401.jpg) are lower glumes.

And, as you have mentioned, i found this grass in a shady place, under a Arjuna and a Tamarind tree.

Regards,

surajit

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