MANUAL OF THE GRASSES OF THE UNITED STATES 



189 



drooping. % — Occasionally culti- 

 vated for ornament in greenhouses. 

 River banks and wet ground, tropical 

 America; soil binder. 



27. CORTADERIA Stapf 



Pampasgrass 



Spikelets several-flowered; rachilla 

 internodes jointed, the lower part 

 glabrous, the upper bearded, forming 

 a stipe to the floret; glumes longer 

 than the lower florets; lemmas of 

 pistillate spikelets clothed with long 

 hairs. Large tussock grasses, with 



pery, long, slender; lemmas bearing 

 a long slender awn. 91 (Gynerium 

 argentewn Nees.)— Plains and open 

 slopes, Brazil to Argentina and Chile. 

 Cultivated as a lawn ornamental in 

 the warmer parts of the United States ; 

 in southern California grown com- 

 mercially for the plumes which are 

 used for decorative purposes, the 

 culms here being sometimes as much 

 as 7 m. tall. Recently planted by Soil 

 Conservation Service for supplemen- 

 tary dry-land pasture in Ventura and 

 Los Angeles Counties, Calif., cattle 

 reported to be thriving on it. 



Figure 252. — Cortaderia selloana. Pistillate ( 9) and staminate (c?) panicles, X 1. (Silveus 308, Tex.) 



leaves crowded at the base, the blades 

 elongate, narrow, attenuate, the mar- 

 gins usually serrulate; panicle large, 

 plumelike. Type species, Cortaderia 

 argentea (C. selloana). Name from the 

 Argentine native name cortadera, 

 cutting, because of the cutting edges 

 of the blades. 



1. Cortaderia selloana (Schult.) 

 Aschers. and Graebn. Pampasgrass. 

 (Fig. 252.) Dioecious perennial reed, 

 in large bunches; culms stout, erect 

 2 to 3 or more m. tall ; panicle feathery, 

 silvery white to pink, 30 to 100 cm. 

 long; spikelets 2- to 3-flowered, the 

 pistillate silky with long hairs, the 

 staminate naked; glumes white, pa- 



Cortaderia RUDiuscuLA Stapf. Differing 

 from C. selloana in the looser yellowish or 

 purplish panicle ; spikelets somewhat smaller. 

 % — Occasionally cultivated for ornament; 

 Argentina. Has been called C. quila Stapf, 

 but that name is ultimately based on Arnndo 

 quila Molina, which is a bamboo. Chusquea 

 quila (Molina) Kunth. 



Ampelodesmos mauritanicus (Poir.) 

 Dur. and Schinz. Robust perennial 

 in large clumps, culms solid, 2 to 3 

 m. tall; blades elongate, wiry, curved 

 at base, bending forward across the 

 culm, the upper surface downward; 

 panicle 20 to 50 cm. long, many- 

 flowered, the slender, flexuous, very 



