Imperata cylindrica

Cogon ( Imperata cylindrica )

Cogon ( Imperata cylindrica ) is a plant and belongs to the subfamily of Panicoideae within the grasses ( Poaceae ). Cultivars with red-colored leaves are grown under the name of blood grass or Japanese blood grass as ornamental plants.

• 7.1 Notes and references

Description

Vegetative characteristics

Imperata cylindrica grows as a perennial herbaceous plant, reaching heights of growth between 25 centimeters and 1.2 meters. The robust, scaly rhizomes spread far. The roots go deep to 1.2 meters in sandy soils only to 40 cm. The singly or in groups standing together straws have a diameter of 1.5 to 3 mm and have one to four more nodes ( nodes) that are bald or gebärtet.

The leaves are divided into leaf sheath and blade. The leaf sheaths are glabrous or hairy at the edges and are fibrous at the plant base. The stiff upright, flat or rolled leaf blades are 20 to 100 cm long and 0.8 to 2 cm wide, near the base are 1 to 3 cm wide. The Spreitenbasis is straight or narrowed and the tip is acuminate. The sharp leaf edges are finely serrated and peppered with sharp silicate crystals. Due to their sharp leaf edges, this type is also called " Sword Grass" (translated " sword grass " ) called. The main vein of the leaf is of a lighter color than the rest and is usually one of the sides closer. The upper side of the leaf is usually occupied at the base with hairs, while the bottom is bare. The ligule ( ligule ) is 1 to 2 mm long.

Generative features

The narrow cylindrical, Rispige inflorescence is hairy 6 to 20 cm long and plentiful and looks silky white. The spikelets are 2.5 to 6 mm long. The glume ( Gluma ) has five to nine nerves and three times as long silky hair as their length. The ciliated lower lemma ovate to lanceolate and has two -thirds of the length to the glume; the dentate, ciliated upper is ovoid and is half as long as the glume. The palea is similar to the lemma. Two dust bags are 2 to 4 mm long. The purple - black scars are long lasting and very striking in silky white inflorescence. Imperata cylindrica flowering and fruiting between April and August.

The chromosome number is 2n = 20

Dissemination

Imperata cylindrica is native to East and Southeast Asia, India, Micronesia and in eastern and southern Africa. Often it is found on disturbed sites such as roadsides, building sites and felling areas, but it can also colonize moist and dry pine forests and often forms dense monotonous stocks. Imperata cylindrica is true in many areas of the world as an aggressive invasive plant.

Cultivation and use

Very often Imperata cylindrica is planted to stabilize seenahe and other threatened erosion of soils. In the 1940s, recommended the U.S. Department of Agriculture, silver hair grass grow on erosion-prone soils, although the grass hardly contain nutritional values ​​and is sharp enough to hurt lips and tongues of cattle. Today it is in the region as an invasive plant slowly spreads to the north from the southern U.S..

Cogon is used for the production of paper and mats or bags. In Papua New Guinea Imperata cylindrica is used for covering roofs.

The main use of Imperata cylindrica, however, lies in medicine as an astringent, antipyretic, diuretic and styptic pencil, which are mainly used in traditional Chinese medicine.

Ecology

Imperata cylindrica can ignite easily, even if it is apparently "green". The flowers appear before the fires. Rhizomes and seeds survive the fire. After the fires, the seeds are dispersed over long distances on the wind.

Name

Some common names in different languages ​​: English: Cogon grass, Sword Grass or Blady Grass; French: paillote; Spanish: cisca; Indonesian: alang -alang; Malay: lalang; Thai: ( หญ้า ) คา; Vietnamese: Co tranh.

System

This species was first published in 1759 as Lagurus cylindricus by Carl Linnaeus in Systema Naturae, Second Edition, 2, p 878. In the genus Imperata this type in 1797 by Ernst Adolf Räuschel: put Nomenclator Botanicus, Third Edition, 3, p 10, this publication, however, is invalid; the valid publication comes from Ambroise Marie François Joseph de Beauvois Palisot in Ess. Agrostogr. , 8, 1812, 165, 177, t. 5, fig. 1 More Imperata cylindrica synonyms for (L.) Räuschel are: Imperata Allang Jungh, Imperata arundinacea Cyr, Imperata Nees ex Steud filifolia, Imperata koenigii var major Nees, Lagurus cylindricus L., Saccharum cylindricum (L.) Lam.. .. , Saccharum koenigii Retz. , Saccharum thunbergii Retz .. the genus Imperata Cirillo belongs to the tribe Andropogoneae in the subfamily within the family Poaceae Panicoideae.

Most Imperata cylindrica valid three varieties are listed below:

• Imperata cylindrica (L.) Räuschel var cylindrica: Leaf blades are rolled. It occurs in the Mediterranean and the Near East.
• Imperata cylindrica var africana ( Andersson ) CEHubb. Leaf blades are flat and the spikelets 3 to 5.7bn ( average 4.5 ) mm long. The home is Africa.
• Imperata cylindrica var major ( Nees ) CEHubb .. The leaf blades are flat and the spikelets, 2.5 to 43 ( average 33) mm long. It is native to tropical Asia and Australasia, perhaps in parts of tropical East Africa.

Swell

• Shou- liang Chen & Sylvia M. Phillips: Imperata in the Flora of China, Volume 22, 2006, p 584: Imperata cylindrica - Online. ( Description section )
• Thomas A. Cope: Poaceae in Flora of Pakistan: Imperata cylindrica - Online. (Section Description and systematics)