Family: Poaceae |
Robert D. Webster Plants perennial; cespitose, often with a knotty crown, sometimes rhizomatous, rhizomes usually short but elongate in some species, rarely stoloniferous. Culms 0.8-6 m, erect. Leaves cauline, not aromatic; sheaths usually glabrous, sometimes ciliate at the throats; ligules membranous, ciliate; blades flat, lax, smooth, usually glabrous. Inflorescences terminal, large, often plumose, fully exserted panicles with evident rachises and numerous, ascending to appressed branches terminating in multiple rames, branches alternate, sometimes naked below; rames with numerous sessile-pedicellate spikelet pairs and a terminal triad of 1 sessile and 2 pedicellate spikelets, internodes slender, without a translucent median groove; disarticulation beneath the pedicellate spikelets and in the rames beneath the sessile spikelets, sessile spikelets falling with the adjacent internode and pedicel. Spikelet pairs homogamous and homomorphic, or almost so, not embedded in the rame axes, dorsally compressed. Sessile spikelets: calluses truncate, usually with silky hairs; glumes subequal, chartaceous to coriaceous, glabrous or villous, 2-keeled, veins not raised; lower florets sterile; lower lemmas hyaline or membranous; lower paleas absent or vestigial, entire; upper florets bisexual; upper lemmas entire or bidentate, muticous or awned; lodicules 2, truncate; anthers 2 or 3. Pedicels neither appressed nor fused to the rame axes. Pedicellate spikelets well developed, from slightly shorter than to equaling the sessile spikelets. x = 10. Name from the Latin saccharum, sugar, a reference to the sweet juice. See references Plants perennial, tufted, often with a knotty crown; sometimes rhizomatous, rarely stoloniferous, rhizomes short or long. Culms to 6 m tall, but often shorter. Leaves not aromatic; sheaths not aromatic, throats sometimes ciliate; ligules membranous, ciliate; blades flat, smooth, usually glabrous. Inflorescences terminal, large, plumose, fully exserted, with evident central axes and nummerous ascending to appressed branches becaring multiple rames [branchlets composed of successive pedicllate-pedicellate spikelet pairs], each terminating in atriad of 1 sessile and 2 pedicellate spikelets; internodes slender, with translucent median grooves. Spikelets homogamous, dorsally compressed. Lower spikelets: calluses truncate, with silky hairs, hairs 2-3 times longer than the spikelets; glumes subequal, chartaceous to coriacous, 2-keeled, veins not raised; lower florets sterile; upper florets bisexual;upper lemmas conspicuously awned; stamens 2-3. Pedicellate spikelets from slight shorter than to equalling the sessile spikelets. Saccharum includes about 17 species (POWO 2022), one of which, Saccharum officinarum, is widely cultivated as sugar cane. The genus is represented in Somalia by Saccharum spontaneum subsp. aegyptium. It is not known to be represented in Somaliland. Cope, T.A. (1995) Saccharum. Flora of Somalia 4: 250-252. Webster, R.D. (2005). Saccharum. In Barkworth et al. Flora of North America north of Mexico 25: 609-616. Welker C.A.D., M.R. McKain, M.S. Vorontsova, M.C. Peichoto & E.A. Kellogg (2019) Plastome phylogenomics of sugarcane and relatives confirms the segregation of the genus Tripidium (Poaceae: Andropogoneae). Taxon 68: 246–267. Cope, T.A. (1995) Saccharum. Flora of Somalia 4: 250-252. Webster, R.D. (2005). Saccharum. In Barkworth et al. Flora of North America north of Mexico 25: 609-616. Welker C.A.D., M.R. McKain, M.S. Vorontsova, M.C. Peichoto & E.A. Kellogg (2019) Plastome phylogenomics of sugarcane and relatives confirms the segregation of the genus Tripidium (Poaceae: Andropogoneae). Taxon 68: 246–267. Global distribution of Saccharum. Note: GBIF records include introduced and cultivated plants. Consequently, the distribution shown often differs from statements about a taxon's native distribution. |