Panicum antidotale

Panicum antidotale
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
(unranked):	Angiosperms
(unranked):	Monocots
(unranked):	Commelinids
Order:	Poales
Family:	Poaceae
Genus:	Panicum
Species:	P. antidotale
Binomial name
Panicum antidotale Retz.
Synonyms
Panicum attenuatum Panicum proliferum

Panicum attenuatum
Panicum proliferum

Panicum antidotale Retz. (Punjabi: ਘਮੂਰ ghamur, English: blue panicgrass) is a tall (up to 3 metres), coarse, woody perennial grass throughout the Himalaya and the Upper Gangetic Plain and specifically in various regions of the Indian state of Punjab and the Pakistan province of Punjab and the neighbouring areas of these regions. The plant has strong spreading rhizomes.

This grass is also listed by William Coldstream in his Illustrations of Some of the Grasses of the Southern Punjab with the vernacular name ghirri (Punjabi ਿਘਰੱੀ) which he however explains is not known to those landowners that he had interviewed as a separate species of Panicum but rather as an unripe form of Panicum antidotale which is generally called in Punjabi ghamur (ਘਮੂਰ).

Panicum antidotale is found in rich soils that have often been improved with compost or dung be they originally of sand or clay. According to Coldstream, for some reason it seems to be found in the vicinity of caper bushes.

This grass is not considered of much use beyond its early tender stages having a bitter or brackish taste when it matures. It is grown in the southwestern United States as a forage, and can now be found there growing wild as an introduced species.

Panicum antidotale is susceptible to yellow stripe disease which is usually found in sugar-cane. The disease in this grass, in which the virus persists for long periods, is capable not only of infecting sugar-canes in their vicinity, but also serves as new sources of infection when diseased canes have been removed.

The following dialect forms are recorded in Punjabi for this grass:

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Wikipedia