ARUNDO

Arundo L., Sp. Pl. 1: 81. 1753; Gen. Pl. 5: 35. 1754; Boiss., Fl. Or. 5: 564; 1814; Hook. f., Fl. Brit. India 7: 302. 1897; Blatter & McCann, Bombay Grasses 204. 1935; Bor, Grasses Burma, Ceyl. Ind. Pak. 413. 1960; Sharma & Khosla, Grasses Punj. and Chandigarh 24. 1989; Fl. China @ eFloras.org 7: 447; Fl. Pak. @ eFloras.org p. 20.

Perennials with creeping rhizomes. Culms very tall, stout, hollow. Leaves cauline; leaf blades broadly linear, tough, flat, base rounded or cordate; ligule a short scarious membrane with minutely ciliolate margin. Inflorescence a large dense, profusely branched, plumose panicle bearing numerous spikelets. Spikelets laterally compressed, 2-7-flowered, disarticulating above glumes and between florets; rachilla internodes glabrous. Glumes subequal, narrow, as long as spikelets, membranous, 3-5-nerved, keeled. Floret callus laterally pilose. Lemmas more or less equalling the glumes, membranous, acuminate, rounded on back, 3-9-nerved, plumose below middle with spreading silky white hairs, tapering to an entire or bidentate apex tipped by a straight awnlet. Palea 1/2-2/3rd length of lemma, 2-keeled, keels glabrous or shortly ciliate.

5 species

Arundo donax

Arundo donax L., Sp. Pl. 1: 81. 1753; Bor, Grasses Burma, Ceyl. Ind. Pak. 413. 1960; Maheshwari, Illustr. Fl. Delhi f. 231. 1966; Sharma & Kachroo, Fl. Jammu 264. 1981; Dhaliwal & Sharma, Fl. Kullu Dist. 670. 1999; Kaur & Sharma, Fl. Sirmaur 654. 2004; Singh & Sharma, Fl. Chamba Dist. 759. 2006; Sharma & Khosla, Grasses Punj. and Chandigarh 24. 1989; Fl. China @ eFloras.org 22; Fl. Pak. @ eFloras.org p. 21; Arundo bifaria Retz., Obs. Bot. 4: 21. 1786; A. latifolia Salisb., Prodr. Strip. 24. 1796.

Perennial with tough fibrous, rhizome forming knotty spreading mats. Culms erect, stout, terete, hollow, up to 3 m long, ca. 1 cm diameter. Leaves cauline, conspicuously distichous; leaf blades coriaceous, linear-lanceolate, more or less drooping, 30-60 cm x 2.5-5 cm, rounded or cordate at base, glabrous, smooth, tapering to a slender filiform apex; leaf sheaths longer than internodes, usually glabrous except long pilose at mouth; ligule very short, scarious, membranous, with minutely ciliolate margin. Panicle terminal, large, erect, 30-60 cm long, profusely branched, dense, plumose, usually purplish; branches 10-25 cm long, ascending, in half whorls, scaberulous. Spikelets 1-1.2 cm long, elliptic-lanceolate, laterally compressed, 3-7-flowered, disarticulating above glumes and between florets; rachilla prolonged, glabrous. Glumes subequal, about as long as the spikelet, 8-12 mm long, ca. 1 mm wide, narrowly lanceolate, membranous, 3-5-nerved, dorsally keeled, scaberulous on keel, apex acuminate; lower glume slightly smaller than the upper one. Lemmas as long as the glumes, ovate-lanceolate, 3-7-nerved, acuminate, 2-fid, mid nerve from sinus produced into a short awn, 1-2 mm long, covered with 5-7 mm long silky hairs all over the lower half of back. Palea 1/2 as long as lemma, ca. 4.5 mm long, hyaline, 2-nerved, 2-keeled, ciliate at back of keels. Lodicules 2, broadly cuneate. Stamens 3; anthers ca. 2 mm long. Stigmas 2, plumose.

Flowering and Fruiting: October to December
Common Names: Giant Reed, Spanish Cane, Colorado River Reed, Wild Cane; Bara Naal, Baree, Doka, Naal, Naaldura (Hindi)