Glyceria acutiflora explained

Glyceria acutiflora, the creeping mannagrass, is a perennial grass found in the north-eastern United States and in north-eastern Asia. Its specific epithet acutiflora means "acute-flowered". It has a diploid number of 40.

Description

Glyceria acutiflora is a coarse grass with flattened, slender culms growing NaNcm (-2,147,483,648inches) high from decumbent bases. Its leaf sheaths overlap each other, with the highest overlapping the base of the panicle. Its ligules are NaNmm long. Its scabrous leaf blades are NaNcm (-2,147,483,648inches) long and NaNmm wide. Its simple or subsimple panicle is NaNcm (-2,147,483,648inches) long, with appressed or somewhat spreading floral branches. Its subsessile spikelets are NaNcm (-2,147,483,648inches) long with five to thirteen flowers. Its acute glumes are unequal, with lower glumes being NaNmm and upper glumes NaNmm long. Its seven-veined lemmas are NaNmm long, strongly acute, and scabrous; its bicuspidate paleas exceed its lemmas by NaNmm. The grass flowers from May to July and rarely into August.[1]

The long paleas of G. acutiflora make it one of the most distinctive species of Glyceria in North America.[2] When immature and still growing, the grass resembles Glyceria borealis.[3]

Habitat and distribution

Glyceria acutiflora can be found growing in muddy pools and the margins of ponds from New Hampshire to Michigan and south to Tennessee and Missouri.[1] The grass is a problematic weed in China, germinating over a wide range of temperatures and being resistant to osmotic and salt stress.[4]

Notes and References

  1. Book: Gray's Manual of Botany . Merrit Lyndon Fernald . 1970 . R. C. Rollins . D. Van Nostrand Company . Eighth (Centennial) - Illustrated. 0-442-22250-5 . 113.
  2. Book: 83 . Flora of North America: North of Mexico . 24 . Flora of North America Editorial Committee . Oxford University Press . 1993 . 9780195310719 .
  3. 92 . Some Introduced Plants of Connecticut . Rhodora . Arthur Blewitt . Benjamin Robinson . New England Botanical Club . 13 . 1911 . 145.
  4. Seed germination ecology of creeping mannagrass (Glyceria acutiflora) and response to POST herbicides . Tang . Wei . Xie . Yuan . Lu . Yongliang . Chen . Jie . Weed Biology and Management . 19 . 1 . 19–27 . 2019 . Wiley Online Library. 10.1111/wbm.12172 .