Comprehensive Description
provided by North American Flora
Vetiveria zizanioides (I,.) Nash, in Small, Fl. SE. U. S. 67. 1903
Phalaris zizanioides 1^. Mant. 183. 1771. Andropogon squarrosus L. f. Suppl. 433. 1781. Andropogon muricatus Retz. Obs. 3 : 43. 1783. Vetiveria odorata Virey, Jour, de Pharm. 13 : 501. 1827. Mandelorna insignis Steud. Syn, Gram. 359. 1854. Vetiveria arundinacea Griseb. Fl. Brit. W. Ind. 559. 1864. Sorgum zizanioides Kuntze, Rev. Gen. 791. 1891.
Stems 2 m. tall or more; leaf -sheaths smooth and glabrous; blades 9 dm. long or less.. 4-10 mm. wide; panicle 2-3 dm. long, its slender ascending or nearly erect branches in dense whorls, readily disarticulating at the nodes, and with a long naked base; sessile spikelet about 4 mm. long, about as long as the internodes, the first scale minutely tuberculate-roughened, 2-keeled, the keels muricate, the second scale 1-nerved, the keel muricate, the fourth scale awnless or short-awned, the awn not exserted; pedicellate spikelet about as long as or a little shorter than the sessile one, sparingly muricate.
Type locality : India.
Distribution : Escaped from cultivation in IvOuisiana, Jamaica, Porto Rico, Guadeloupe, and Martinique, and in other parts of tropical America and elsewhere in tropical regions.
- bibliographic citation
- George Valentine Nash. 1912. (POALES); POACEAE (pars). North American flora. vol 17(2). New York Botanical Garden, New York, NY