''Aeluropus lagopoides'', sometimes called mangrove grass or rabbit-foot aeluropus, is a

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

Eurasia Eurasia (, ) is the largest continental area on Earth, comprising all of Europe and Asia. Primarily in the Northern and Eastern Hemispheres, it spans from the British Isles and the Iberian Peninsula in the west to the Japanese archipelago a ...

n and

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

n plant in the

grass family Poaceae () or Gramineae () is a large and nearly ubiquitous family of monocotyledonous flowering plants commonly known as grasses. It includes the cereal grasses, bamboos and the grasses of natural grassland and species cultivated in lawns and ...

, found primarily in salty soils and waste places.

Description

''Aeluropus lagopoides'' is a mat-forming, straggling perennial with long

stolon In biology, stolons (from Latin '' stolō'', genitive ''stolōnis'' – "branch"), also known as runners, are horizontal connections between organisms. They may be part of the organism, or of its skeleton; typically, animal stolons are external s ...

s and pungent foliage. The stems grow to a maximum length of and may become woody. The growth is sometimes in the form of tufted erect stems, or may have prostrate stems that root at the nodes. The greyish-green leaves have loose leaf-sheaths, and grow in a single plane from either side of the stem. They are lanceolate with rounded bases, stiff and leathery, long and wide. The leaf blades have rough surfaces and are ribbed, with entire margins and pointed tips. The inflorescence is a globose, elliptic or oblong head of densely crowded spikelets, up to long and wide.

Distribution and habitat

''Aeluropus lagopoides'' is found in northern Africa, the eastern Mediterranean region, the Middle East, the Arabian Peninsula and eastwards in Asia as far as Pakistan and India. It is a

halophytic A halophyte is a salt-tolerant plant that grows in soil or waters of high salinity, coming into contact with saline water through its roots or by salt spray, such as in saline semi-deserts, mangrove swamps, marshes and sloughs and seashores. T ...

plant and is found in damp soil on the fringes of

salt marsh A salt marsh or saltmarsh, also known as a coastal salt marsh or a tidal marsh, is a coastal ecosystem in the upper coastal intertidal zone between land and open saltwater or brackish water that is regularly flooded by the tides. It is dominated ...

es, near sulphurous springs, on salt flats, on vacant ground, road verges and in places where little else grows. In the Indian subcontinent it is only found in areas with arid and semi-arid soils. It is found in wet and even waterlogged saline conditions but not in highly alkaline soils.

Ecology

''Aeluropus lagopoides'' is adapted to the saline conditions in which it is often found by having a thick waxy cuticle, and by having glands that can secrete excess salt. The seeds are able to germinate at concentrations of up to 500 mM

NaCl Sodium chloride , commonly known as salt (although sea salt also contains other chemical salts), is an ionic compound with the chemical formula NaCl, representing a 1:1 ratio of sodium and chloride ions. With molar masses of 22.99 and 35.45 g ...

in warmer conditions, a concentration of salt roughly equivalent to

sea water Seawater, or salt water, is water from a sea or ocean. On average, seawater in the world's oceans has a salinity of about 3.5% (35 g/L, 35 ppt, 600 mM). This means that every kilogram (roughly one liter by volume) of seawater has approx ...

, but not at temperatures below ; the seeds remain viable at high salt concentrations and can germinate when the concentration reduces, after rainfall for example. ''Aeluropus lagopoides'' is useful for stabilising sand and produces good

fodder Fodder (), also called provender (), is any agriculture, agricultural foodstuff used specifically to feed domesticated livestock, such as cattle, domestic rabbit, rabbits, sheep, horses, chickens and pigs. "Fodder" refers particularly to food g ...

, dying back in the dry season and sprouting well after winter rains. Despite a three-fold increase in soil salt content in some areas in summer, the concentration of salt in the tissues shows little variation. It is favoured by grazing animals because the foliage does not accumulate salt in the same way as does that of '' Suaeda fruticosa'' and ''

Salsola stocksii ''Salsola'' is a genus of the subfamily Salsoloideae in the family Amaranthaceae. The genus ''sensu stricto'' is distributed in central and southwestern Asia, North Africa, and the Mediterranean. A common name of various members of this genus and ...

'', other plants with which it is found growing on saltlands.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q12227499 Chloridoideae Grasses of Africa Grasses of Asia Grasses of Europe Flora of Malta