Indian Lovegrass

This species is very widely distributed in tropical and warm regions of the Old World. It is a forage grass with medicinal uses.

Hairy or India Lovegrass is considered to be good fodder and is enjoyed by buffaloes.

Culm tufted. Blade linear-lanceolate, about 8 cm long by 3.5 mm wide; ligule about 0.4 mm long, upper half turned into a fringe of hairs; sheath-mouth sparingly covered with long silky hairs. Inflorescence a large open panicle, about 14 mm long. Spikelets 6-7-flowered, about 4 mm long; glumes chartaceous, 1-nerved; the lower glume about 0.5 mm long, ovate lanceolate; the upper about 0.8 mm long, lanceolate; lemma chartaceous, ovate or ovate-lanceolate, 3-nerved, lateral 2 inconspicuous; palea chartaceous, oblanceolate, obtuse, 2-keeled, scabrous along keels. Caryopsis elliptical, about 0.5 mm long; embryo 1/2 the length of the caryopsis.

Annual. Culms tufted, erect or geniculate at base, 15–60 cm tall, 1.5–2.5 mm in diam., 4-noded, smooth. Leaf sheaths pilose at summit, compressed, margin submembranous; ligules a line of hairs; leaf blades flat or involute, 6–20 × 0.2–0.3 cm, glabrous. Panicle 10–25 × 3.5–14 cm; branches solitary to verticillate, pilose in axils, usually ascending, pedicels as long or longer than spikelets. Spikelets 3–10 × 1–1.5 mm, 4–14-flowered. Glumes membranous, lanceolate, apex acuminate, lower glume without vein, 0.4–0.9 mm, upper glume 1-veined, 0.7–1.3 mm. Lemmas ovate, apex acute, lower lemma ca. 1.8 mm. Palea ca. 1.5 mm, along keels persistent or tardily deciduous ciliate. Stamens 3; anthers 0.1–0.3 mm. Caryopsis oblong, ca. 0.8 mm. Fl. and fr. Aug–Nov. 2n = 40, 60.

Loosely tufted annual; culms 8-70 cm high, erect or ascending. Leaf-blades flat, 2-20 cm long, 14 mm wide. Panicle elliptic to ovate, 4-25 cm long, open, the lowest branches whorled (except in the smallest panicles) and nearly always with a few long white hairs in the axils. Spikelets 4-14-flowered, linear, 3-7 mm long, 0.7-1.2 mm wide, purplish-green, the florets ± appressed to the rhachilla, breaking up from the base, the rhachilla persistent; glumes hyaline, unequal, the lower a narrowly ovate nerveless scale 0.5-0.7 mm long, the .upper ovate, 1 mm long, with a single indistinct nerve; lemmas broadly ovate, 1-1.6 mm long, obtuse to subacute; palea falling soon after the lemma (usually persistent in temperate regions), the keel scaberulous; anthers 3, 0.2-0.3 mm long. Caryopsis ellipsoid with one side straight, 0.6-1 mm long, somewhat laterally compressed.

Tropical and warm regions of the Old World.

Very widely distributed in tropical and warm regions of the Old World.

Distribution: Pakistan (Sind, Baluchistan, Punjab & N.W.F.P.); tropical and warm temperate regions of the Old World; introduced to the New World.

200 m

Fl. & Fr. Per. July-October.

Open grasslands. Anhui, Beijing, Fujian, Guizhou, Hainan, Heilongjiang, Henan, Hubei, Nei Mongol, Ningxia, Shaanxi, Shandong, Taiwan, Xizang, Yunnan, Zhejiang [SE Asia; Africa, Australia, S Europe; introduced in America].

Poa pilosa Linnaeus, Sp. Pl. 1: 68. 1753.