686

Arundo donax L.

Synonym	:	Aira bengalensis (Retz.) J.F.Gmel
Family	:	Poaceae
Local name	:	Malayalam- Oodappullu.
Flowering and fruiting period	:	August-December
Distribution	:	Mediterranean region eastwards to North Africa, India-Pakistan; introduced into many parts of worlld
Distribution in kerala	:	Kottayam, Palakkad, Kozhikkode, Thrissur
Habitat	:	Along banks of streams and backwaters
Uses	:	Stems serve as support for vines and similar climbing plants, and for making trellises and the like for climbing cultivated plants. The rhizome or rootstock is used for dropsy. Boiled in wine with honey, the root or rhizome has been used for cancer.
Key Botanical Characters: Perennial, with creeping woody rhizomes. Culms erect, up to 5 m high. Leaf-blades conspicuously distichous, linear-lanceolate, rounded or cordate at the base, 30-60 cm long, 2.5-5 cm wide, glabrous, smooth, long-attenuate at the tip. Panicle 30.60 cm long and 5.8(10) cm wide. Spikelets 10-15 mm long; glumes subequal, lanceolate to narrowly lanceolate, (8-)10-13 mm long, the lower a little shorter than the upper; lemmas lanceolate, (6) 8.5-13 mm long, 3-5-nerved, 3 of the nerves produced as short aristae, hairy all over the back below the middle with hairs up to 7 mm long.