Desmostachya bipinnata

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Photographs by: Dr. Maulik Gadani

Habit : A perennial tall, rootstock stout, creeping, stolons very stout clothed with shining sheaths.
Stem : Tufted, smooth, erect, stout.
Leaves : Many, basal, fascicled, very long, rigid long acuminate tips filiform, margins hispid, mouth of sheath with long hairs, ligule 0.
Inflorescence : Panicles, strict, erect, narrowly pyramidal or columnar, often interrupted, rachis puberulous, branches very much crowded, branchlet rigid, glabrous or hispidulous, spreading.
Flowers : Spikelets unilateral, biseriate and crowded, deflexed, pale brown, rather shining, internodes of rachilla very short, glume obtuse, floral glume coriaceous, palea shorter than its glume, rather coriaceous, keels minutely scabrid. Stamens 3.
Seeds : Grains, obliquely ovoid, laterally compressed, obscurely trigonous.
Flowering and Fruiting Time : All the year round.
Significance :
- The grass has been tried as a raw material for paper manufacture.
- It gives a pulp, difficult to bleach.
- The fibre is weak and of short length.
- The grass may be used for thatching and rope making.
- The culms are considered diuretic and used in dysentery and menorrhagia.
- It is also used in Hindu religious ceremonies.