Ehrharta calycina

Ehrharta calycina is a species of grass known by the common names perennial veldtgrass and purple veldtgrass.

Ehrharta calycina
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Monocots
Clade: Commelinids
Order: Poales
Family: Poaceae
Genus: Ehrharta
Species:
E. calycina
Binomial name
Ehrharta calycina

Distribution

It is native to southern Africa.

It grows in Veld grassland habits of South Africa, Lesotho, Swaziland, Zimbabwe, Botswana, and Namibia.

Description

Ehrharta calycina is a highly variable perennial grass, often but not always rhizomatous.

It usually reaches 30–70 centimetres (12–28 in) in height, but is known to grow much taller in favorable conditions.

The inflorescence is a narrow to wide open array of spikelets light in color when new and becoming darker and tinted purple to reddish with age.

Introduced / invasive species

The grass is an introduced species, often becoming a noxious weed outside its native range.

It is an invasive species in California, where it is an invasive weed of chaparral and coastal sage scrub habitat along the southern and central coastal regions.[1] It was first introduced to Davis in the Sacramento Valley as a drought-tolerant range grass for grazing.[2][3]

It is also known as an invasive species and weed in parts of Australia.

References


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