Eulaliopsis binata (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Eulaliopsis binata (Retz.) C.E. Hubbard

Family: Gramineae

Synonyms

Andropogon binatus Retz., Ischaemum angustifolium (Trin.) Hackel.

Vernacular names

• Sabai grass, berveza grass, baib grass (En)
• Philippines: kaboot (Ilokano, Ibanag), pueng (Bontoc), sangumati (Bukidnon).

Distribution

Afghanistan, Pakistan, northern India, Nepal, Burma (Myanmar), Indo-China, southern China, Taiwan, Thailand and the Philippines.

Uses

The culms are made into rope, mats and string, e.g. in the Philippines and India. They are considered durable and useful for making grass slippers. In India and China E. binata is also used on a fairly large scale for the production of paper pulp; the pulp is suitable to make high-quality printing and writing papers. E. binata is planted to prevent erosion, e.g. in sisal and tree plantations, and for land rehabilitation. It serves as a fodder, but is probably of inferior quality.

Observations

A perennial, tufted grass with culms up to 1 m tall, swollen and densely woolly-hairy at base. Leaves subulate, up to 30 cm × 3 mm; ligule a ring of hairs. Inflorescence a raceme, digitately arranged; spikelets paired, one sessile and one pedicelled, about 5 mm long, densely covered with soft, golden hairs, 2-flowered; upper lemma with long awn. E. binata occurs in grassland up to 1400 m altitude. It thrives on well-drained sandy loams with an annual rainfall of 750-1500 mm. Propagation is best by rootstock division; seedlings raised in nurseries may also be used. The fibre cells are (0.5-)2.1(-4.9) mm long and (4-)9(-28) μm wide; they are thick-walled and have blunt or pointed ends. Pulping is performed under alkaline conditions, and the pulp is often mixed with short-fibred pulps from hardwoods or from agricultural waste material such as rice straw. In the early 1950s E. binata represented about 22% of the total fibrous material pulped in India, but in recent years its use for pulp production has decreased because of limited supply. Plantations have been established to increase production.

Selected sources

19, 30, 66, 84, 94, 115, 133, 143.

Authors

M. Brink, P.C.M. Jansen & C.H. Bosch