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Saccharum spontaneum L.  
Family: Poaceae
Wild Sugar-Cane, more...Wild Sugarcane
[Imperata spontanea (L.) P. Beauv., moreSaccharum aegyptiacum Willd., Saccharum arenicola Ohwi, Saccharum boga Buch.-Ham. ex Wall., Saccharum caducum Tausch, Saccharum canaliculatum Roxb., Saccharum casi Buch.-Ham. ex Wall., Saccharum chinense Nees ex Hook. & Arn., Saccharum glaza Reinw. ex Blume, Saccharum insulare Brongn., Saccharum klagha Jungh. ex Steud., Saccharum lota Buch.-Ham. ex Wall., Saccharum modhara Hook. f., Saccharum palisotii Tausch, Saccharum propinquum Steud., Saccharum semidecumbens Roxb., Saccharum speciossisimum Tausch, Saccharum spontaneum subsp. biflorum (Forssk.) Pilg., Saccharum spontaneum var. aegyptiacum (Willd.) Hack., Saccharum spontaneum var. klagha (Jungh. ex Steud.) Hack., Saccharum spontaneum var. spontaneum L., Saccharum tenuis Buch.-Ham. ex Wall., Tricholaena semidecumbens (Roxb.) Schult.]
Saccharum spontaneum image
  • FNA
  • Resources
Robert D. Webster. Flora of North America

Plants with long rhizomes. Culms 2-4 m tall, 0.6-2 cm thick, solitary or few together. Sheaths usually glabrous; ligules 1.5-3 mm; blades 50-100 cm long, 10-25 mm wide, usually glabrous, markedly hirsute above the ligules. Peduncles pilose; panicles 40-70 cm, narrowly oblong to widely ovate, rachises 25-50 cm, densely pilose; primary branches 2.5-7 cm. Sessile spikelets 3.5-7 mm. Callus hairs to 12 mm; glumes glabrous over the back, ciliate toward the tip; lower lemmas about 3 mm; upper lemmas subequal to the lower lemmas, entire; awns absent; anthers 3. Pedicels 1.5-3 mm, ciliate. Pedicellate spikelets similar to the sessile spikelets. 2n = 20, 24-30, 32, 36, 38, 40, 48-60, 64, 69.

Saccharum spontaneum is a weedy species, native to tropical Africa and Asia, that is now established in Mesoamerica but not, so far as is known, in the Flora region. It is listed as a noxious weed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, but it is grown in breeding programs as a source of potentially useful genes for S. officinarum (sugar cane), with which it readily hybridizes. Because of the potential economic damage of uncontrolled hybridization between S. spontaneum and S. officinarum, the U.S. Department of Agriculture should be notified of plants found growing outside a controlled planting.

Saccharum spontaneum
Open Interactive Map
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Kathy M. Davis, University of Florida Herbarium
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Kathy M. Davis, University of Florida Herbarium
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Kathy M. Davis, University of Florida Herbarium
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Kathy M. Davis, University of Florida Herbarium
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Kathy M. Davis, University of Florida Herbarium
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Kathy M. Davis, University of Florida Herbarium
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Kathy M. Davis, University of Florida Herbarium
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Kathy M. Davis, University of Florida Herbarium
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Kathy M. Davis, University of Florida Herbarium
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The National Science Foundation
Development supported by National Science Foundation Grants (DBI 9983132, BRC 0237418, DBI 0743827, DBI 0847966)
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