''Bothriochloa bladhii'' (commonly called, variously, Australian bluestem, Caucasian bluestem, forest-bluegrass, plains bluestem, and purple plume grass) is a

Neotropic The Neotropical realm is one of the eight biogeographic realms constituting Earth's land surface. Physically, it includes the tropical terrestrial ecoregions of the Americas and the entire South American temperate zone. Definition In bioge ...

grass in the family

Poaceae 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 an ...

, found primarily in tropical Africa, and tropical and temperate Asia, and Australia. The

type specimen In biology, a type is a particular wiktionary:en:specimen, specimen (or in some cases a group of specimens) of an organism to which the scientific name of that organism is formally attached. In other words, a type is an example that serves to a ...

was collected from China by Finnish botanist Peter Johan Bladh. The name of Bladh is honored in the

specific epithet In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...

Distribution

''Bothriochloa bladhii'' is native to Africa from Senegal and Ethiopia southwards to South Africa; the Middle East; much of temperate and tropical, southern and eastern Asia, Malesia, and Australia . ''Bothriochloa bladhii'' has also become naturalized elsewhere in the neotropics.

Uses

''Bothriochloa bladhii'' is used as stored food for local

livestock Livestock are the domesticated animals raised in an agricultural setting to provide labor and produce diversified products for consumption such as meat, eggs, milk, fur, leather, and wool. The term is sometimes used to refer solely to animals ...

, and as a

grazing In agriculture, grazing is a method of animal husbandry whereby domestic livestock are allowed outdoors to roam around and consume wild vegetations in order to convert the otherwise indigestible (by human gut) cellulose within grass and other ...

plant by both livestock and wild

ruminant Ruminants (suborder Ruminantia) are ungulate, hoofed herbivorous grazing or browsing mammals that are able to acquire nutrients from plant-based food by Enteric fermentation, fermenting it in a specialized stomach prior to digestion, principally ...

s. It is sometimes planted as a revegetator, to restore

disturbed Disturbed may refer to: Books * ''Disturbed'', a 2011 novel by Kevin O'Brien (author) Film and TV * ''Disturbed'' (film), a 1990 film starring Malcolm McDowell * "Disturbed" (''Numb3rs''), a 2009 episode of ''Numb3rs'' * "The Disturbed", a 2 ...

land.

References

External links

GrassBase page for ''Bothriochloa bladhii''
from the

Hawaiian Ecosystems at Risk project The Hawaiian Ecosystems at Risk project (HEAR) is a government-funded project created to provide technology, methods, and information to decision-makers, resource managers, and the general public to help support effective science-based management ...

(HEAR) website, courtesy of the Bishop Museum, Herbarium Pacificum bladhii Grasses of Africa Grasses of Asia Grasses of China Grasses of India Grasses of New Zealand Grasses of Pakistan Grasses of Russia Flora of Indo-China Flora of East Tropical Africa Flora of Southern Africa Flora of South Tropical Africa Flora of temperate Asia Flora of Afghanistan Flora of Armenia Flora of Azerbaijan Flora of Bhutan Flora of Burkina Faso Flora of Cameroon Flora of the Democratic Republic of the Congo Flora of Ethiopia Flora of Ghana Flora of Iran Flora of Japan Flora of the Ryukyu Islands Flora of Kazakhstan Flora of Kyrgyzstan Flora of Malesia Flora of Nepal Flora of Nigeria Flora of Papua New Guinea Flora of Senegal Flora of Sri Lanka Flora of Taiwan Flora of Anhui Flora of Fujian Flora of Guangdong Flora of Guangxi Flora of Guizhou Flora of Hubei Flora of Hunan Flora of Shaanxi Flora of Sichuan Flora of Xinjiang Flora of Yunnan Poales of Australia Plants described in 1781 {{Panicoideae-stub