AGROSTIDE^i 



233 



Sporobolus tremulus, Kunth. 



A small tufted perennial grass. 



The plant consists of prostrate stems and stolons, filiform and 

 wiry. Stems vary in length from 2 to 18 inches, prostrate or erect, 

 rooting at the lower nodes ; flowering branches always ascending. 



The leaf-sheath is glabrous, finely striate, shorter than the inter- 

 node. The ligule is a very short ciliated membrane. 



The leaf-blade is narrow linear, pungent, somewhat rigid, flat, 

 distichous, base rounded with or without a few long hairs and 

 varies in length from Y\ to I inch and in breadth from 1/20 to 1/16 

 inch, but in plants growing in rich moist soils the leaves become 

 longer reaching 3% inches in length. 



The inflorescence is a narrow spiciform panicle with appressed 

 branches and spikelets, sometimes interrupted, varying in length 

 from % to \V\ inch ; both the peduncle and the main rachis are 

 glabrous, and the latter wavy. 



The spikelets are 1/16 inch long, oblong-lanceolate, pale, crowded, 

 glabrous, shortly pedicelled on thinly scaberulous filiform short 



Fig. 180. — Sporobolus tremulus. 



1. Spike; 2. spikelet ; 3 and 4. first and second glumes; 5 and 

 6. third glume and its palea ; 7. ovary and anthers. 



branches. There are three glumes in the spikelet, and all the glumes 

 are membranous and thin. The first glume is a little shorter than 

 the second and about two-third the length of the third glume and I- 

 nerved. The second glume is a little shorter than the third or equal 

 to but not longer, oblong-lanceolate, subacute or obtuse, i-nerved 

 and obscurely scaberulous at the back along the nerve. The third 

 glume is broadly oblong, subacute or obtuse, I-nerved, glabrous, 

 with a palea as long as the glume ; the palea is 2-nerved, oblong 

 and truncate at the apex. Stamens are three and anthers are 

 pale greenish yellow. Stigmas are pale. Lodicules are two, small. 



This grass is an excellent one for binding the soil and may also 

 prove successful as a fodder grass. It usually flourishes in moist 

 situations, in sandy loams and rich heavy soils. 



Distribution. — Plains throughout India and Ceylon. 

 3° 



