|
Briza minor
|
|
|
|
Family:
POACEAE/GRAMINEAE
|
|
Citation: Briza minor L., Sp. Pl. 70. 1753.
|
|
Malayalam Name(s):
|
|
Tamil name(s):
|
|
English name(s):
Small Quaking Grass
|
|
Description:
Annual herbs; culms (5)-10-80 cm tall, erect or somewhat geniculate below, glabrous. Leaf blades 2-20 cm long, 2-10 mm wide; sheaths entirely glabrous, the juncture with the blade long and narrowly triangular, the base of the blade extending downward as much as 3 cm as a wing on the sheath; ligule 2.3-6.5 mm long at the apex, extending down to merge with the hyaline sheath margin. Panicle (1)-4-14 cm long, 1-12 cm wide, ovoid, the branches widely spreading at maturity, scabrous, usually bearing more than 20 spikelets, or as few as 5 in depauperate specimens, the pedicels pendent. Spikelets 2.9-4 mm long, 3.5-4.1 mm wide, triangular-ovate, greenish; florets 5-9; glumes 3-5 nerved, herbaceous in the centre, hyaline at the margins, the lower glumes 1.6-2.4 mm long, the upper glumes 1.8-2.7 mm long; lower lemma 1.6-2.3 mm long, 5-9 nerved, the palea about 2/3 as long as the lemma; anthers 0.3-0.7 mm long, yellow or purple; stigmas white. Caryopsis 0.7-1 mm long, 0.5-0.7 mm wide, circular to obovate-elliptic in outline, flat to slightly concave on the hilum side, strongly convex on the embryo side, free from the palea, the hilum punctate, subbasal.
|
|
Habit:
Herb
|
|
Flowering & Fruiting:
September-December
|
|
District(s):
Idukki
|
|
Medicinal:
|
|
Habitat:
Scrub jungles in the high ranges
|
|
Distribution:
Native of Meditterranean, introduced and growing wild in the high ranges
|
|
Aquatic:
No
|
|
Epiphyte(s):
No
|
|
Saprophyte:
No
|
|
Stem parasite:
No
|
|
Root parasite:
No
|
|
Flower colour(s):
Green
|
|
Weed:
No
|
|
Monocot/Dicot:
Monocotyledonous Plants
|
|
Exotic:
Yes
|
|
Garden:
No
|
|
Edible:
No
|
|
Vegetable:
No
|
|
Endemic to:
|
|
IUCN status:
|
|
Altitude:
|
|
Localities:
|