Code
PANPU
Growth form
Grass
Biological cycle
Vivacious
Habitat
Terrestrial
synonym | Brachiaria numidiana (Lam.) Henrard |
synonym | Brachiaria purpurascens (Raddi) Henrard |
synonym | Panicum amphibium Steud. |
synonym | Panicum appressum Forssk. |
synonym | Panicum barbinode Trin. |
synonym | Panicum equinum Salzm. ex Steud. |
synonym | Panicum guadaloupense Steud. |
synonym | Panicum leiogonum Sieber ex Link |
synonym | Panicum limnaeum Steud. |
synonym | Panicum muticum Forssk. |
synonym | Panicum numidianum Lam. |
synonym | Panicum paraguayense Steud. ex Döll |
synonym | Panicum pictigluma Steud. |
synonym | Panicum punctulatum Arn. ex Steud. |
synonym | Panicum purpurascens Raddi |
synonym | Urochloa mutica (Forssk.) T.Q.Nguyen |
Creoles and pidgins; French-based |
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Global description
Brachiaria mutica is a vivacious grass that can grow up to one metre high. Indurated culm, often lying at the base and rooting easily at the nodes in contact with the soil. The nodes and sheath are entirely hairy. The ligule is ciliated, about 1 mm long. The leaf blade is lanceolate, elongated, with a tapering tip. It is up to 30 cm long and 7 to 15 mm wide. It is flat, with a scabrous margin, glabrous or most often hirsute on the upper side. It is often reddish in colour. The inflorescence is a 7-20 cm long panicle, consisting of 5-20 differently arranged racemes. Spikelets green and often purple-tinged, hairless, 2.5 to 3.5 mm long, arranged in pairs, with pedicels of unequal length.
General habit
Brachiaria mutica is a decumbent grass that can reach 25 to 125 cm in height.
Underground system
The roots are fasciculate, with adventitious roots developing from the basal nodes in contact with the soil.
Culm
Cylindrical culm, first prostrate on the ground and then erect, can be 25 to 125 cm high. The nodes are hairy.
Leaf
Simple, alternate leaves. The sheath is cylindrical, hispid over its entire surface, with tubercular-based hairs. The ligule is ciliated, 1 mm long. The blade is linear lanceolate, 6-30 cm long and 3-15 mm wide, slightly broadened at the base, with an acuminate apex. The lower surface is glabrous and the upper surface is shaggy and scabrous, the margin scabrous.
Inflorescence
The inflorescence is 7 to 20 cm high, formed by 5 to 20 one-sided racemes, 2 to 10 cm long, usually simple or sometimes with secondary racemes near the base. The rachis is winged, 0.5 to 1 mm wide, with a scabrous margin.
Spikelet
The spikelets are in pairs, pedicellate and arranged in several more or less regular rows. The spikelet is elliptical, acute, and 2.5 to 3.5 mm long. The lower glume is oval, acute, 1/4 to 1/3 the length of the spikelet, with 3-5 veins. The upper glume is oblong, acute, the size of the spikelet, 3-5 veins long. The lower floret is male, consisting of a lemma similar to the upper glume, the palea is present, hyaline. The upper floret is fertile, consisting of an elliptic, obtuse, mucronate or mucronulate lemma, 2-3 mm long, indurated, rough, not keeled with involuted margins. The palea is of the same texture as the lemma, rough.
Attributions | Wiktrop |
Contributors | |
Status | UNDER_CREATION |
Licenses | CC_BY |
References |
Brachiaria mutica is a vivacious grass. It multiplies by seed and vegetatively by rooting at the nodes in contact with the soil.
Attributions | Wiktrop |
Contributors | |
Status | UNDER_CREATION |
Licenses | CC_BY |
References |
Reunion: B. mutica is an exotic species, introduced as a fodder plant and now naturalized. Occasionally present as a weed in sugarcane plots, it can also be found on the banks of rivers and mangrove swamps. It likes wet soils. Mainly present in the north and east but also around the Etang de Saint Paul.
West Indies: Brachiaria mutica grows preferentially on flat, deep and moist soils.
Attributions | Wiktrop |
Contributors | |
Status | UNDER_CREATION |
Licenses | CC_BY |
References |
Origin
Brachiaria mutica is native to Africa, from Sahara to Angola, N. Africa to Syria, SW. Arabian Peninsula
Worldwide distribution
This species is now pantropical.
Attributions | Wiktop |
Contributors | |
Status | UNDER_CREATION |
Licenses | CC_BY |
References |
Local harmfulness
West Indies: Brachiaria mutica is a weed present in all crops except mature banana plantations. It can become very harmful to sugarcane cultivation if its development is not controlled, in particular by the use of herbicides or by uprooting. Although it is almost absent from vegetable and food crops, it sometimes forms large formations in orchards in wetlands. Mechanical weeding techniques often favour its spread and establishment in orchards.
Attributions | Wiktrop |
Contributors | |
Status | UNDER_CREATION |
Licenses | CC_BY |
References |
Attributions | Wiktrop |
Contributors | |
Status | UNDER_CREATION |
Licenses | CC_BY |
References |
Herbarium pictures ReCOLNAT: https://explore.recolnat.org/search/botanique/simplequery=brachiaria%2520mutica
Attributions | Wiktrop |
Contributors | |
Status | UNDER_CREATION |
Licenses | CC_BY |
References |
Root | Root |
Kingdom | Plantae |
Phylum | Tracheophyta |
Class | Liliopsida |
Order | Poales |
Family | Poaceae |
Genus | Brachiaria |
Species | Brachiaria mutica (Forssk.) Stapf |