Tropicos | Name - Bothriochloa bladhii (Retz.) S.T. Blake

Bothriochloa bladhii (Retz.) S.T. Blake

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Project Name Data (Last Modified On 6/2/2011)

Acceptance : Accepted

Project Data (Last Modified On 6/3/2011)

Type: Type: China, Bladh (LD).

Distribution: Distribution: Pakistan (Punjab, N. W. F. P, Gilgit & Kashmir); Old World tropics.

Comment/Acknowledgements: Much of the taxonomic difficulty in this genus arises from the promiscuous habits of Bothriochloa bladhii whose rapacious introgression has vastly increased its own variability, blurred the boundaries with adjacent species to the point of extinction, and led to the emergence of new races from among the introgression products (DeWet & Harlan in Am. J. Bot. 53: 94-98. 1966; and Faruqi in Phyton (Austria) 13:285-303. 1969). The species is here treated in a wide sense to include all specimens with an elongated inflorescence. The only exception is the hybrid with Dichanthium annulatum which is sufficiently distinct from Bothriochloa to warrant a hybrid formula.

In some accounts (e.g. Bor, Grasses Burma Ceyl. Ind. Pak. and in Fl. Iran; Rozhev & Shishkin in Fl. URSS) Bothriochloa caucasica is recognised at species level. Its ancestry is complicated, but according to DeWet & Harlan (in Taxon 19:339. 1970) it probably arose from tetraploid races of Bothriochloa intermedia and Capillipedium parviflorum hybridising and then backcrossing to Capillipedium parviflorum, Although it does form a small, reasonably compact subpopulation of Bothriochloa bladhii, with the lower lemma of the sessile spikelet only about half as long as the lower glume, the distinction is not sufficient for it to warrant species rank. It is a better species from the cytogeneticist’s point of view than it is from the morphologist’s. It is not in fact a caucasian endemic, but occurs at least as far east as Chitral and doubtless could arise spontaneously wherever its parents grow together.

The various hybrids of Bothriochloa intermedia, according to DeWet & Harlan (1970), are as follows:

Bothriochloa intermedia x Bothriochloa ischaemum = Bothriochloa taiwanensis (included in Bothriochloa bladhii)

Bothriochloa intermedia x Dichanthium annulatum = " Dichanthium grahamii” (here kept apart from Bothriochloa)

Bothriochloa intermedia x Capillipedium parviflorum = Bothriochloa glabra (included in Bothriochloa bladhii)

(Bothriochloa intermedia x Capillipedium praviflorum ) x Capillipedium parviflorum = Bothriochloa caucasica (included in Bothriochloa hladhii)

Map Location: A-8 Gilgit Agency: above Chalt, Nagar State, 6000', R.R. Stewart 26635 (K); B-7 Hazara dist.: Abbottabad, 4500', R. R. Stewart 27807 (K, RAW); 2 miles from Abbottabad on way to Nathiagali S. A. Faruqi & M. Qaiser 3424 (KUH): Kashmir: Garhi, Jhelum Valley Road, 2500', R. R. Stewart 10105 (K); C-7 Rawalpindi dist.: Topi Park, 1700', R. R. Stewart 23388 (K); ibid., R. R. Stewart s.n. (KUH, RAW); Potha, Murree Hills, 4400', R. R. Stewart 23389, 23391 (K); C-8 Kashmir: Bagh to Raikot, 4-5000', R. R. Stewart & E. Nasir 2382 (K, RAW); Nawal Nadi, 12 September 1953, A. Rashid Khan, E. Nasir & R. R. Stewart s.n. (RAW); D-7 Sahiwal dist.: Chakar, 31 August 1955, Sultan Ahmad s.n. (K).