Taxon: Imperata cylindrica (L.) P. Beauv.

• Raeuschel gives no evidence his I. cylindrica, nom. nud. is based on Lagurus cylindricus L.
• his adoption of Imperata whose only prior species included L. cylindricus in synonymy isn't enough (ICBN Art. 33.3)

A declared noxious weed by USDA-APHIS.

A declared aquatic or terrestrial noxious weed and/or noxious-weed seed in these U.S. states (see state noxious weed lists), with links to state information or web documents:

AL*, AR*, FL*, HI*°, MS*, NC*, PR*.

ªAquatic.

*Terrestrial.

°In seed.

Link to noxious weed information from

Link to species profile at

Common names:

• alang-alang   (Source: Dict Rehm ) – English
  
• blady grass   (Source: Genet Res Comm 21:2.) – English
  
• cogon   (Source: Websters Dict ) – English
  
• cogongrass   (Source: World Econ Pl ) – English
  
• cotton-wool grass   (Source: Grass SAfr ) – English
  
• imperata   (Source: Herbs Commerce ed2 ) – English
  
• Japanese blood grass   (Source: Dict Gard ) – English
  
• kunai grass   (Source: Aust Pl Common Names ) – English
  
• kura-kura   (Source: Aust Pl Common Names ) – English
  
• halfa   (Source: F Egypt ) – Arabic
  
• shishmallah   (Source: Weeds Saudi Arabia ) – Arabic
  
• bai mao   (Source: Herbs Commerce ed2 ) – Transcribed Chinese
  
• impérate   (Source: Dict Rehm ) – French
  
• chi-gaya   (Source: Grass Japan ) – Japanese Rōmaji
  
• fushige-chi-gaya   (Source: Dict Gard ) – Japanese Rōmaji
  
• lalang   (Source: Dict Rehm ) – Malay
  
• caminhadora   (Source: D. Groth, p.c. 2005) – Portuguese (Brazil)
  
• sapé   (Source: D. Groth, p.c. 2005) – Portuguese (Brazil)
  
• bomullsgräs   (Source: Vara kulturvaxt namn ) – Swedish
  

More:

see MMPND for additional names in foreign scripts

Economic importance:

• Environmental: erosion control   (fide Pl Res SEAs 4:140-142. 1992)
  
• Environmental: ornamental   (fide Dict Gard)
  
• Animal food: potential as forage   (fide Pl Res SEAs 4:140-142. 1992)
  
• Gene sources: tertiary genetic relative of sugarcane   (fide Bot Gaz 118:154-155. 1957, citing a 1938 cross that resulted in a 2n+n hybrid)
  
• Medicines: folklore   (fide Pl Res SEAs 12(1):310. 1999; Herbs Commerce ed2, as I. cylindrica var. major)
  
• Weed: potential seed contaminant   (fide Weed CIBA; Invasive Pl Spec)
  

More:

View ethnobotanical data from Duke's Phytochemical and Ethnobotanical Databases

Distributional range:

• AFRICA
  Macaronesia: Portugal - Madeira Islands; Spain - Canary Islands
  Northern Africa: Algeria; Egypt; Libya; Morocco; Tunisia
  Northeast Tropical Africa: Chad; Eritrea; Ethiopia; Sudan
  East Tropical Africa: Kenya; Tanzania; Uganda
  West-Central Tropical Africa: Burundi; Cameroon; Central African Republic; Congo; Gabon; Rwanda; Zaire
  West Tropical Africa: Benin; Burkina Faso; Cote D'Ivoire; Gambia; Ghana; Guinea; Guinea-Bissau; Liberia; Mali; Niger; Nigeria; Senegal; Sierra Leone; Togo
  South Tropical Africa: Angola; Malawi; Mozambique; Zambia; Zimbabwe
  Southern Africa: Botswana; Lesotho; Namibia; South Africa - Cape Province, Free State, KwaZulu-Natal, Transvaal; Swaziland
• ASIA-TEMPERATE
  Arabian Peninsula: Oman; Saudi Arabia; Yemen
  Western Asia: Afghanistan; Cyprus; Egypt - Sinai; Iran; Iraq; Israel; Jordan; Lebanon; Syria; Turkey
  Caucasus: Armenia; Azerbaijan; Georgia; Russian Federation - Dagestan
  Middle Asia: Kazakhstan; Kyrgyzstan; Turkmenistan; Uzbekistan
  China: China
  Eastern Asia: Japan - Hokkaido, Honshu, Kyushu, Ryukyu Islands, Shikoku; Korea
• ASIA-TROPICAL
  Indian Subcontinent: Bhutan; India; Nepal; Pakistan; Sri Lanka
  Indo-China: Cambodia; Laos; Myanmar; Thailand; Vietnam
  Malesia: Indonesia; Malaysia; Papua New Guinea; Philippines
• AUSTRALASIA
  Australia: Australia - New South Wales, Northern Territory, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria, Western Australia [n.e.]
• EUROPE
  Southeastern Europe: Albania; Bulgaria; Croatia; Greece [incl. Crete]; Italy [incl. Sardinia, Sicily]; Slovenia
  Southwestern Europe: France [s. & Corsica]; Portugal; Spain [incl. Baleares]

• AFRICA
  Macaronesia: Cape Verde
  Western Indian Ocean: Madagascar; Seychelles
• ASIA-TROPICAL
  Indo-China: Thailand
  Malesia: Papua New Guinea
• AUSTRALASIA
  Australia: Australia - Lord Howe Island
  New Zealand: New Zealand
• NORTHERN AMERICA
  United States
• PACIFIC
  North-Central Pacific: United States - Hawaii
  Northwestern Pacific: Guam; Micronesia; Northern Mariana Islands; Palau
  Southwestern Pacific: American Samoa; Vanuatu
• SOUTHERN AMERICA
  Caribbean: West Indies
  Mesoamerica: Central America
  Western South America: Colombia
  Southern South America: Chile
  South America

• also cultivated

References:

• Genet. Res. Commun. 21:2.
• PROTABASE, the information base of PROTA (Plant Resources of Tropical Africa) (on-line resource).
• 't Mannetje, L. & R. M. Jones, eds. 1992. Forages. In: Faridah Hanum, I. & L. J. G. van der Maesen, eds., Plant Resources of South-East Asia (PROSEA). 4:140–142. [lists as I. cylindrica (L.) Raeusch.].
• Abbiw, D. K. 1990. Useful plants of Ghana.
• Aldén, B., S. Ryman & M. Hjertson. 2009. Våra kulturväxters namn - ursprung och användning. Formas, Stockholm (Handbook on Swedish cultivated and utility plants, their names and origin).
• Bor, N. L. 1960. The grasses of Burma, Ceylon, India, and Pakistan. [lists as I. cylindrica (L.) Raeusch.].
• Boulos, L. 1999–. Flora of Egypt.
• CIBA-GEIGY, Basel, Switzerland. Documenta CIBA-GEIGY (Grass weeds 1. 1980, 2. 1981; Monocot weeds 3. 1982; Dicot weeds 1. 1988)
• Chaudhary, S. A. 1987. Weeds of Saudi Arabia and theb Arabian Peninsula.
• Council of Heads of Australasian Herbaria. Australian plant census (APC) (on-line resource).
• Davis, P. H., ed. 1965–1988. Flora of Turkey and the east Aegean islands. [lists as I. cylindrica (L.) Raeusch.].
• Euro+Med Editorial Committee. Euro+Med Plantbase: the information resource for Euro-Mediterranean plant diversity (on-line resource).
• Exell, A. W. et al., eds. 1960–. Flora zambesiaca. [lists as I. cylindrica (L.) Raeusch.].
• FNA Editorial Committee. 1993–. Flora of North America.
• Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). 2010. Ecocrop (on-line resource).
• George, A. S., ed. 1980–. Flora of Australia.
• Ghazanfar, S. A. 1992. An annotated catalogue of the vascular plants of Oman. Scripta Botanica Belgica 2.
• Gibbs-Russell, G. E. et al. 1990. Grasses of southern Africa. Mem. Bot. Surv. S. Africa vol. 58. [lists as I. cylindrica (L.) Raeusch.].
• Grierson, A. J. C. & D. J. Long. 1984–. Flora of Bhutan including a record of plants from Sikkim. [lists as I. cylindrica (L.) Raeusch.].
• Groth, D. 2005. pers. comm. [re. Brazilian common names].
• Hansen, A. & P. Sunding. 1993. Flora of Macaronesia: checklist of vascular plants, ed. 4. Sommerfeltia vol. 17.
• Hedberg, I. & S. Edwards. 1989–. Flora of Ethiopia. (and Eritrea. 2000) [lists as I. cylindrica (L.) Raeusch.].
• Hitchcock, A. S. 1950. Manual of the grasses of the United States, ed. 2. [lists as I. cylindrica (L.) P. Beauv.].
• Holm, L. et al. 1979. A geographical atlas of world weeds.
• Holttum, R. E. et al. 1953–1971. A revised flora of Malaya. [lists as I. cylindrica (L.) P. Beauv.].
• Huxley, A., ed. 1992. The new Royal Horticultural Society dictionary of gardening.
• Institute of Pacific Islands Forestry. Pacific Island Ecosystems at Risk (PIER): plant threats to Pacific ecosystems (on-line resource).
• Integrated Botanical Information System (IBIS). Australian plant common name database (on-line resource).
• Izquierdo Z., I. et al., eds. 2004. Lista de especies silvestres de Canarias: hongos, plantas y animales terrestres.
• Keay, R. W. J. & F. N. Hepper. 1953–1972. Flora of west tropical Africa, ed. 2. [lists as I. cylindrica (L.) P. Beauv.].
• Koyama, T. 1987. Grasses of Japan and its neighboring regions. [lists as I. cylindrica (L.) P. Beauv.].
• Lazarides, M. 1980. The tropical grasses of Southeast Asia. [lists as I. cylindrica (L.) P. Beauv.].
• Mouterde, P. 1966–. Nouvelle flore du Liban et de la Syrie. [lists as I. cylindrica (L.) P. Beauv.].
• Nasir, E. & S. I. Ali, eds. 1970–. Flora of [West] Pakistan. [lists as I. cylindrica (L.) Raeusch.].
• Padua, L. S. de et al., eds. 1999. Medicinal and poisonous plants 1. In: Faridah Hanum, I. & L. J. G. van der Maesen, eds., Plant Resources of South-East Asia (PROSEA). 12(1):310.
• Porcher, M. H. et al. Searchable World Wide Web Multilingual Multiscript Plant Name Database (MMPND) (on-line resource).
• Price, S. 1957. Cytological studies in Saccharum and allied genera. III. Chromosome numbers in interspecific hybrids. Bot. Gaz. 118:146–159.
• Rechinger, K. H., ed. 1963–. Flora iranica. [lists as I. cylindrica (L.) P. Beauv.].
• Rehm, S. 1994. Multilingual dictionary of agronomic plants.
• Seed Regulatory and Testing Branch, Agricultural Marketing Service, U.S.D.A. 1999. State noxious-weed seed requirements recognized in the administration of the Federal Seed Act.
• Shukla, U. 1996. Grasses of north-eastern India. [lists as I. cylindrica (L.) P. Beauv.].
• Soerjani, M. et al., eds. 1987. Weeds of rice in Indonesia. 434.
• Sreekumar, P. V. & V. J. Nair. 1991. Flora of Kerala - grasses. [lists as I. cylindrica (L.) Raeusch.].
• Townsend, C. C. & E. Guest. 1966–. Flora of Iraq. [lists as I. cylindrica (L.) P. Beauv.].
• Turrill, W. B. et al., eds. 1952–. Flora of tropical East Africa. [lists as I. cylindrica (L.) Raeusch.].
• Tutin, T. G. et al., eds. 1964–1980. Flora europaea. [lists as I. cylindrica (L.) Raeusch.].
• Tzvelev, N. N. 1976. Zlaki SSSR. [lists as I. cylindrica (L.) P. Beauv.].
• USDA National Agricultural Library. National Invasive Species Information Center (on-line resource).
• Weber, E. 2003. Invasive plant species of the world: a reference guide to environmental weeds.
• Wood, J. R. I. 1997. A handbook of the flora of Yemen. [lists as I. cylindrica (L.) Raeusch.].
• Wu Zheng-yi & P. H. Raven et al., eds. 1994–. Flora of China (English edition). [lists as I. cylindrica (L.) Raeusch.].
• Zon, A. P. M. van der. 1992. Graminées du Cameroun. [lists as I. cylindrica (L.) Raeusch.].
• Webster's third new international dictionary.

More:

Search AGRICOLA article citation database for citations referencing Imperata cylindrica.

Search NCBI's Entrez search engine for PubMed citations referencing Imperata cylindrica.

Search Biodiversity Heritage Library for historical publications referencing Imperata cylindrica.

Synonyms:

• (=) Imperata arundinacea Cirillo
  (previously associated with 1 accession)
• (=) Imperata cylindrica subsp. koenigii (Retz.) Masam. & Yanagita
  
• (=) Imperata cylindrica var. koenigii (Retz.) Perkins
  
• (=) Imperata cylindrica var. major (Nees) C. E. Hubb.
  
• (=) Imperata koenigii (Retz.) P. Beauv.
  
• (=) Imperata koenigii var. major Nees
  
• (≡) Lagurus cylindricus L. (basionym)
  
• (=) Saccharum koenigii Retz.
  

Check other web resources for Imperata cylindrica (L.) P. Beauv.:

• Flora Europaea: Database of European Plants (ESFEDS)
• PLANTS: USDA-NRCS Database of Plants of the United States and its Territories
• BONAP: North American Plant Atlas of the Biota of North America Program
• Flora del Conosur: Catálogo de las Plantas Vasculares del Conosur
• Flora of China: Online version from Harvard University
• AVH: Australia's Virtual Herbarium
• ABRS: Australian Biological Resources Study Flora of Australia online
• SIBIS: South African National Biodiversity Institute's (SANBI) Integrated Biodiversity System
• On-line Flora of Zimbabwe
• TROPICOS: Nomenclatural and Specimen Database of the Missouri Botanical Garden
• CNWG: Catalogue of New World Grasses Searchable Database
• Grass Manual on the Web: Manual of Grasses for North America North of Mexico
• World Grass Species-Descriptions: Morphological species description from Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
• AusGrass2: Australian grass data from Bryan K. Simon’s on-line database
• Mansfeld: Mansfeld's World Database of Agricultural and Horticultural Crops
• PROTABASE: Plant Resources of Tropical Africa's (PROTA's) online resource
• ePIC: Electronic Plant Information Centre of Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
• AGRICOLA: Article Citation Database or NAL Catalog of USDA's National Agricultural Library
• Entrez: NCBI's search engine for PubMed citations, GenBank sequences, etc.

Images:

• Disseminule drawings: U.S. National Seed Herbarium drawing
• Embryo drawing: U.S. National Seed Herbarium drawing
• Forestry Images: from www.forestryimages.org
• Spikelets and/or florets: U.S. National Seed Herbarium image

More:

• Check PlantSystematics.org for additional images
• Images Note: Be advised that their identity may be inaccurate. Proper identification of a plant may require specialized taxonomic knowledge or comparison with properly documented herbarium material.

Abbreviations & symbols in GRIN Taxonomy

Ctrl P to print