keys to the vascular plants of east texas - Botanical Research ...

CORTADERIA/POACEAE
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of the inflorescence, and a staminate portion 2–4(–5) cm long which extends beyond the apical
opening of the involucre; pistillate spikelets 3, 1 sessile and fertile and 2 pedicellate and sterile;
staminate spikelets in pairs (or 3s) on the inflorescence axis, 1 of each group sessile, the other(s)
pedicellate, each with 2 florets; awns absent; stamens 3. Cultivated ornamental, possibly escaping
but probably only a yard weed; DeWitt (TAES) and Nacogdoches (Turner et al. 2003) cos.;
CA, IA, LA, NM, PA, TN, and TX. Summer–fall. Native of se Asia, widely introduced in the tropics.
Forms with the bead-like involucre or “false fruit” having a thin shell are used as food, especially
in India and Burma, while forms having a hard shell are used as beads for jewelry and rosaries
(Hitchcock 1951; Jain & Banerjee 1974; Mabberley 1997). The involucres “may be white,
blue, pink, straw, gray, brown, or black, with the color being distributed evenly, irregularly, or in
stripes” (Thieret 2003e). A cultivated form with yellow-striped leaf blades is known (Hitchcock
1951). This species is variously considered a significant weed, is cultivated as fodder, and is used
for making flour (Watson & Dallwitz 1999). I
CORTADERIA Stapf PAMPAS GRASS
Coarse perennials, dioecious, gynodioecious, or only pistillate; stems densely clumped, erect or
nearly so, usually > 2 m tall; leaves mostly basal; ligule a tuft of hairs; inflorescence a large,
showy, dense, plume-like panicle; spikelets compressed laterally, with 3–8 florets, the distal reduced
and incomplete; disarticulation above glumes and between florets; glumes 2, awnless;
lemmas awned to nearly awnless; stamens 3 in staminate florets.
AA C3 genus of 24–25 species (Astegiano et al. 1995; Allred 2003c) of coarse, clump-forming
grasses mostly native to South America, with a few in New Zealand and New Guinea; it includes
cultivated ornamentals and significant weeds. Recent molecular evidence (Barker et al.
2000) suggests that the genus as presently delimited may be polyphyletic and that the New
and Old World species “represent different lineages, each of which merits generic recognition”
(Allred 2003c). However, even if two genera are recognized, both species treated here would remain
in Cortaderia. (From the Argentinian name, from Spanish: cortada, cutting, in reference
to the sharply serrate blades—Allred 2003c) (subfamily Danthonioideae, tribe Danthonieae)
REFERENCES: Connor & Edgar 1974; Cowan 1976; Costas Lippmann 1977; Allred 1993a, 2003c;
Astegiano et al. 1995; Barker et al. 2000; Linder & Barker 2000; Lambrinos 2001, 2002.
1. Leaf sheaths densely hairy; lemma awns 1 mm or less long; culm exceeding leaves, the inflorescence
base usually well above the foliage; culm 4–5 times length of inflorescence _______________ C. jubata
1. Leaf sheaths glabrous to sparsely hairy; lemma awns 2.5–5(–9) mm long; culm � equaling the
leaves, the inflorescence base only slightly, if at all, above the foliage; culm 2–4 times length of
inflorescence ____________________________________________________________________ C. selloana
Cortaderia jubata (Lemoine) Stapf, (maned or crested, apparently in reference to inflorescence),
PAMPAS GRASS, PURPLE PAMPAS GRASS. Plant 2–7 m tall, pistillate only, producing fruits asexually;
leaf blades to 1 m or more long, with distal half not curved, the upper surface with pubescence
basally; inflorescence 30–100 cm long; spikelets 14–16 mm long; stigmas included; 2n = 108
(Allred 1993a). Open disturbed areas; included based on citation of Bexar, Brazos, Harris, and
Hays cos. by Turner et al. (2003); also Cameron Co. (Turner et al. 2003) at s tip of TX; however,
we have seen no naturalized TX material of this species; CA and TX. Native of Bolivia, Ecuador,
and Peru. [C. atacamensis (Phil.) Pilg.] This species is capable of reproducing apomictically and
invading open habitats (Allred 2003c.). It is considered a serious invasive weed in CA (Cowan
1976; Costas Lippmann 1977; Allred 2003c) and a noxious weed in HI (Kartesz 1999). � I
Cortaderia selloana (Schult. & Schult.f.) Asch. & Graebn., (for Friedrich Sellow, 1789–1831, German
botanist who collected in South America), PAMPAS GRASS, URUGUAYAN PAMPAS GRASS. Dioecious
or gynodioecious, coarse perennial to ca. 3(–4) m tall, forming large dense clumps to 2 m