Neyraudia reynaudiana
| Neyraudia reynaudiana | |
|---|---|
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| (unranked): | Angiosperms |
| (unranked): | Monocots |
| (unranked): | Commelinids |
| Order: | Poales |
| Family: | Poaceae |
| Subfamily: | Chloridoideae |
| Genus: | Neyraudia |
| Species: | N. reynaudiana |
| Binomial name | |
|
Neyraudia reynaudiana (Kunth) Keng ex A.S.Hitchc. |
|
Neyraudia reynaudiana, commonly known as Burma reed, silk reed, cane grass, or false reed, is a tall, perennial, large-plumed grass native to subtropical Asia, but invasive in southern Florida in the United States.
The stems of Burma reed, with flower stalks, are from 3 to 15 feet (0.91 to 4.57 m) tall, depending on soil and moisture conditions. The leaves are 8 to 10 inches (20 to 25 cm) long and hairless, except for a single line of horizontal hairs at the juncture of the upper and lower portions of the leaf. Stems are approximately 0.5 inches (1.3 cm) wide, round, solid, and have nodes (stem-leaf junctures) every 3 to 5 inches (7.6 to 12.7 cm) along the stem. The flower plumes, which can be up to 3 feet (0.91 m) long, are composed of many hundreds of tiny flowers and have a shimmery, silky appearance. Flowering occurs in April and October in south Florida, each clump producing an average of forty stalks and twelve to twenty flowering plumes. Burma reed resembles several other tall grasses, including common reed (Phragmites communis), giant reed (Arundo donax), pampas grass (Cortaderia selloana) and sugar cane (Saccharum officinarum).
Burma reed reproduces by seed and through underground stems called rhizomes. Burma reed plants flower twice each year, producing hundreds of thousands of tiny seeds that are dispersed by the wind. New clumps of Burma reed emerge from rhizomes that may be embedded in sand, soil, or rubble.
Burma reed is widely distributed in warm, subtropical habitats in Southeast Asia and Indomalaya, including portions of Japan, southern China, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Malaya, Myanmar (Burma), Bhutan, Nepal, and eastern India. It occurs in bogs, in open savannahs, on upland cliffs, and along forest and road edges, and from sea level to altitudes of 6,500 feet (2,000 m).
Neyraudia reynaudiana was first introduced into the United States 11 January 1915 (Plant Introduction # 39690 as N. madagascariensis, presented by Mr. C.C. Calder, Royal Botanic Garden) by the U.S. Department of Agriculture South of Miami. There were also later introductions, including one on 17 April 1916 (Plant Introduction # 42529 as N. madagascariensis, presented by Maj. A.T. Gage, Superintendent, Royal Botanic Garden). According to a cryptic annotation on the label, the latter introduction is apparently also the source of sheet 899975 at the US National Herbarium (Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, Herbarium code:US) dated Nov. 1916 from Chico, California. Both introductions were originally from Sidpur near Calcutta, India. A letter attached to (US) sheet 1385256, a collection of the species by Paul Weatherwax on 18 April 1927 from along Bay Shore Drive SE of Miami, explains that he had seen it a Chapman Field in 1925. He also states that Mr. Bissett showed him several plants of this at the bamboo farm near Savannah (another USDA facility in Georgia). Sheet 1259803 (US) is his collection from Chapman Field, 2 Nov. 1925, inscribed "Not in cultivation". Another sheet at US has a letter from noted horticulturalist Liberty Hyde Bailey to noted agrostologist Albert Spears Hitchcock on 23 January 1926 attached. In the letter he explains that he took the plant into cultivation at Chapman Field and speculates that it had been released in Coconut Grove where he found it near residences, through dumping of garden waste. Another collection at US, sheet 899980 is a collection by N.M. Bolander from San Francisco, California in 1861 with the inscription: "Collected in front of a Chinese workhouse".
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