Buchloe dactyloides
| Buchloe dactyloides | ||||||||||||
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Buchloe dactyloides |
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| Buchloe dactyloides | ||||||||||||
| ( Nutt. ) Engelm. |
Buchloe dactyloides (Syn .: Bouteloua dactyloides (Nutt.) Columbus ), one of several buffalo grasses , is a species of grass from the sweet grass family(Poaceae)native to North America. It is the only representative of the genus Buchloe .
features
Buchloe dactyloides is a perennial grass species that forms lawns through runners . The stalks reach heights of five to ten centimeters and have alternating long and compressed internodes . The ligule is a ring of hair 0.5 millimeters in length. The leaf blades are two to twelve, rarely up to 20 centimeters long and 1 to 2.5 millimeters wide.
The plants are mostly dioecious , more rarely monoecious ; male and female spikelets are always in separate inflorescences.
The female inflorescences are in the axils of inflated leaf sheaths , are composed of two racemes and are shorter than the basal leaves. They are 0.3 to 0.4 inches long and each carry three to five fertile spikelets. The spikelets consist of a fertile floret, are oval and laterally compressed. When ripe, they fall off as a whole. The glumes are longer than the florets and unequal: the lower glume is oblong, at most half as long as the upper and membranous; it can be reduced or absent. The upper one is oval, three to four millimeters long, seven-nerved and not keeled. Its tip is triple lobed and pointed. The lemma is oval, 2.5 to 3.5 millimeters long, membranous, keeled and three-veined; their tip is triple lobed with incisions half the length of the glume. The palea is half as long as the lemma and two-veined.
The male inflorescences are terminal and differ from the female. They consist of grapes along a central axis. The spikelets are double-flowered, oval and 4 to 5.5 millimeters long. They have two glumes. The lemma is three-veined. The three anthers are 2.5 to 3.5 millimeters long and orange to red in color.
The caryopses are elongated to ovoid, 2 to 2.5 millimeters long and dark brown. The embryo takes up 90 percent of the length of the fruit.
The species is extremely long-lived. One specimen was found to be 10,000 years old.
The number of chromosomes is 2n = 20, 40 or 60.
Distribution and locations
Buchloe dactyloides is native to North America; the area extends from Canada to Mexico.
The species is next to Bouteloua gracilis the main species of the short grass prairie in the large dry areas of North America, namely in the Great Plains and in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains . It grows on low-humus brown soil. Buchloe dactyloides thrives best with annual rainfall between 300 and 630 millimeters and rises up to 1900 meters above sea level.
The grass species is also found in semi-desert grasslands of New Mexico, in the coastal prairies of Louisiana and Texas. It is a subordinate species in the long grass prairies, it also occurs in the understory of pine - juniper -, mesquite - and pinus ponderosa forests as well as in oaks - hickory savannas.
Buchloe dactyloides is an important food plant for the American bison ( Bos bison ) and the black-tailed prairie dog ( Cynomys ludovicianus ). It is also a valuable food crop for cattle, sheep and horses.
Systematics
The species is sometimes integrated into the genus Bouteloua as Bouteloua dactyloides (Nutt.) Columbus .
supporting documents
- Buchloe dactyloides , in: WD Clayton, KT Harman, H. Williamson: GrassBase - The Online World Grass Flora . 2006ff.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Jane Reece & al .: Campbell Biology . 10th edition, Pearson, Hallbergmoos 2016, p. 1003.
- ^ Tropicos. [1]
- ^ Heinrich Walter , Siegmar W. Breckle: Ecology of the earth. Volume 4: Temperate and Arctic Zones outside Euro-North Asia . S. 353, G. Fischer, Stuttgart 1991. ISBN 3-437-20371-1
- ↑ a b c Janet L. Howard: Buchloe dactyloides . In: Fire Effects Information System, US Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Fire Sciences Laboratory, 1995.
- ↑ Manual of Grasses for North America ( Memento of the original from November 9, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
