''Loudetia simplex'' is a

grass 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 ...

species found in

tropical The tropics are the regions of Earth surrounding the Equator. They are defined in latitude by the Tropic of Cancer in the Northern Hemisphere at N and the Tropic of Capricorn in the Southern Hemisphere at S. The tropics are also referred to ...

and

Southern Southern may refer to: Businesses * China Southern Airlines, airline based in Guangzhou, China * Southern Airways, defunct US airline * Southern Air, air cargo transportation company based in Norwalk, Connecticut, US * Southern Airways Express, M ...

Africa and

Madagascar Madagascar (; mg, Madagasikara, ), officially the Republic of Madagascar ( mg, Repoblikan'i Madagasikara, links=no, ; french: République de Madagascar), is an island country in the Indian Ocean, approximately off the coast of East Africa ...

. It was originally described as a ''

Tristachya ''Tristachya'' (common name trident grasses) is a genus of African and Latin American plants in tribe Tristachyideae within the grass family. ; Species ; formerly included see ''Danthoniopsis Dilophotriche Loudetia Loudetiopsis ''Loudetiopsi ...

'' species by

Christian Gottfried Daniel Nees von Esenbeck Christian Gottfried Daniel Nees von Esenbeck (14 February 1776 – 16 March 1858) was a prolific German botanist, physician, zoologist, and natural philosopher. He was a contemporary of Goethe and was born within the lifetime of Linnaeus. He de ...

in 1841 and was transferred to ''

Loudetia ''Loudetia'' is a genus of African, Arabian, and South American plants in the grass family.Charles Edward Hubbard Charles Edward Hubbard (23 May 19008 May 1980) was a British botanist, specialising in agrostology – the study of grasses. He was considered "the world authority on the classification and recognition of grasses" in his time. He is indicated by ...

in 1934. The species is a perennial

bunch grass Tussock grasses or bunch grasses are a group of grass species in the family Poaceae. They usually grow as singular plants in clumps, tufts, hummocks, or bunches, rather than forming a sod or lawn, in meadows, grasslands, and prairies. As perennial ...

, with culms erect and long. Leaves are mostly basal, with flat, convolute blades long and 2–5 mm wide. The inflorescence is a long

panicle A panicle is a much-branched inflorescence. (softcover ). Some authors distinguish it from a compound spike inflorescence, by requiring that the flowers (and fruit) be pedicellate (having a single stem per flower). The branches of a panicle are of ...

spikelet A spikelet, in botany, describes the typical arrangement of the flowers of grasses, sedges and some other Monocots. Each spikelet has one or more florets. The spikelets are further grouped into panicles or spikes. The part of the spikelet that ...

s, each containing one sterile and one fertile flower. The lemma carries a 25–50 mm long

awn AWN may stand for: * Awn Access to Justice Network in Gaza Strip, Legal Aid Network operate in Gaza Strip, Palestine * Animation World Network, an online organization for animators * Avant Window Navigator, a dock-like bar that tracks open windows ...

. Like all ''Loudetia'' species, ''L. simplex'' uses C₄ photosynthesis and occurs in open habitats, often on poor shallow soils. It is a significant

weed A weed is a plant considered undesirable in a particular situation, "a plant in the wrong place", or a plant growing where it is not wanted.Harlan, J. R., & deWet, J. M. (1965). Some thoughts about weeds. ''Economic botany'', ''19''(1), 16-24. ...

species. Two subspecies have been described: *''Loudetia simplex'' subsp. ''simplex'' *''Loudetia simplex'' subsp. ''stipoides'' In Madagascar, it is one of the dominant grassland species in the central high plateaus, where it occurs on leached, poorly drained soils and is quite fire-resistant. In Malagasy, it is known locally as ''horona'', ''horo'', ''berambo'', ''kilailay'', ''kirodrotra'', or ''felika''. It has only medium value as pasture grass.

References

Panicoideae Flora of Africa Flora of Madagascar Flora of the Madagascar subhumid forests {{Panicoideae-stub