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Info
Subfamily: Panicoideae
Genus etymology: Saccharum = "sugar" [Latin] refering to the species cultivated for their sweet culms
Species etymology: sinense = from China
Photosynthetic type: C4 (warm season)
Nativity: naturalized - intentional
First recorded in Hawaiʻi: 2022
Map
Inflorescence
Plant
Spikelets
Landscape
Description
Perennial. Culms 3–4 m tall, 3–4 cm in diam., many-noded, solid, softly pilose below inflorescence. Leaf blades ca. 100 × 3–5 cm, glaucous, glabrous, midrib large, white, margins serrate; ligule ca. 2 mm. Panicle 30–60 cm, axis with white silky hairs; rachis internodes pilose. Spikelets ca. 4.5 mm; callus hairs 2–3 times length of spikelet; lower glume lanceolate, dark brown; lower lemma oblong-lanceolate; upper lemma linear, 1.2–3 mm or reduced, awnless. Lodicules glabrous. Anthers 3, 1.5–2 mm. Fl. and fr. Nov–Mar. 2n = 106–120*.
(Description source: Wu, Z.Y., Raven, P.H. & Hong, D.Y. (eds.). 2006. Flora of China. Volume 22. Poaceae. Missouri Botanical Garden Press, St. Louis. 733 pp. )