Lepturus repens (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Lepturus repens (G. Forster) R. Br.

Family: Gramineae

Synonyms

• Monerma repens (Forster f.) P. Beauvois.

Distribution

From East Africa, the islands in the Indian Ocean and Sri Lanka, throughout South-East Asia to Australia and Polynesia.

Uses

Useful as a sand binder.

Observations

• Stoloniferous, perennial grass up to 40 cm tall.
• Leaves rigid, bluish-green, very rough on the upper surface.
• Spikelets 1-flowered, sessile, alternate along and sunken in the readily disarticulating rachis of a single, cylindrical, spike up to 15 cm long; lower glume absent; upper glume coriaceous and acuminate to long-tailed.

L. repens is found on sandy shores, dunes, coastal rocks, and along saline lagoons.

Selected sources

• Bor, N.L., 1960. The grasses of Burma, Ceylon, India and Pakistan (excluding Bambuseae). Pergamon Press, Oxford, United Kingdom. 767 pp.
• Heyne, K., 1950. De nuttige planten van Indonesië [The useful plants of Indonesia]. 3rd Edition. 2 volumes. W. van Hoeve, the Hague, the Netherlands/Bandung, Indonesia. 261, 1450 pp.
• Lazarides, M., 1980. The tropical grasses of Southeast Asia (excluding bamboos). Phanerogamarum Monographiae, Volume 12. J. Cramer, Vaduz, Liechtenstein. 225 pp.

Authors

• M.S.M. Sosef & L.J.G. van der Maesen