Imperata cylindrica var. major
Common name
Cogon grass
Family
Poaceae
Flora category
Vascular – Exotic
Structural class
Grasses
Conservation status
Not applicable
Habitat
Terrestrial open places, sunny places on hills, flats on volcanic soil near coast.
Detailed description
Perennial tropical grass forming loose or compact tufts to about 1 m. Colonies establish from long-creeping, tough, scaly rhizomes about 3 mm diameter. Leaves held on upright culm 20–50 cm tall. Leaf-sheath light brown, sometimes purplish, glabrose or with scattered fine hairs above, shredding into stiff fibres at maturity. Leaf-blade to 1 m x 4–10 mm, glabrous with rough margins. Panicle 9–15 x c. 2 cm, a dense silky white spike. Seed not seen in New Zealand.
Similar taxa
I. cylindrica is distinguished from I. cheesmanii by the dense flowering spike (cylindrica).
Year naturalised
1911
Origin
Tropical/warm temperate Asia, Australia, New Caledonia, Eastern Africa, Lord Howe Island.
Etymology
cylindrica: From the Latin cylindricus ‘cylindrical, having nearly a true cylindrical form
major: Greater
Reason For Introduction
Agricultural
Life Cycle Comments
Perennial. Can from dense swards (Lisa Forester 1996).
Reproduction
Vegetative spread by long branched rhizomes.