Journal of
Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 June 2018 | 10(7):
11969–11972
Polytrias indica (Poaceae: Andropogoneae): the
name, species identity and its distribution in India
Vatsavaya S. Raju 1 & V. SampathKumar 2
1 Department of Botany, KakatiyaUniversity, NH-563, Vidyaranyapuri, Hanamkonda, Warangal, Telangana506009, India
2 Central National Herbarium, Botanical
Survey of India, Botanic Garden (P.O.), Howrah, West Bengal 711103, India
1 rajuvatsavaya@gmail.com (corresponding
author), 2 vskumar10@rediffmail.com
doi: http://doi.org/10.11609/jott.3436.10.7.11969-11972
Editor: Wilson Arisdason, Botanical Survey of India, Kolkata, India. Date of publication: 26 June 2018 (online & print)
Manuscript details: Ms# 3436 | Received 03 April 2017 | Final received 17 May 2018 | Finally accepted
28 May 2018
Citation: Raju, V.S. & V.S. Kumar (2018).Polytrias indica (Poaceae: Andropogoneae): The name, species identity and its
distribution in India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 10(7): 11969–11972; http://doi.org/10.11609/jott.3436.10.7.11969-11972
Copyright: © Raju & Kumar 2018.Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. JoTT allows unrestricted use of this article in any
medium, reproduction and distribution by providing adequate credit to the
authors and the source of publication.
Funding: None.
Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests.
Acknowledgements: VSR is thankful to Dr.M. Surekha, Head, Department of Botany, Kakatiya University, Warangal and VSK to Dr. P. Singh, Director, Botanical Survey of India (BSI),
Kolkata, for encouragement and Dr. C.P. Vivek (Botanical Assistant, Andaman and Nicobar Regional
Centre, BSI, Port Blair), for the digital images of Polytrias specimens at PBL, Dr. L. Rasingam,
Scientist-in-charge, BSI-DRC, Hyderabad for permission to work in the
herbarium, Dr. P.V. Sreekumar(former Scientist, BSI, Kolkata) and Dr. P. Lakshminarasimhan (Scientist E & Head, BSI-WRC, Pune)
for their opinion on the occurrence of Polytrias indica in their knowledge domain.
Abstract: Polytrias indica (Houtt.) Veldkamp is native to Java (Indonesia) but found outside
its native range as a lawn grass or an escape. In India, it was first collected from Khasia (now Khasi) in Meghalaya
and later reported as a garden escape in Indian Botanic Garden, Shibpur, West Bengal. Merrill
created the confusion when he made the combination Ischaemum indicum (1938) for a taxon
which is not an Ischaemum. The so-called Polytrias indica in certain Indian herbaria (e.g., PBL,
BSID) is, indeed, Ischaemum ciliare Retz. (1791) to which
name Ishaemum indicum has been misapplied in Indian grasses literature, and the IUCN assessment
of Polytrias indicamade in 2013 is not an exception.
Keywords: Identity, India, Ischaemum indicum, IUCN assessment, Java grass, nativity, Phleum indicum, Polytrias indica.
Polytrias
Polytrias Hack. is a genus of the family Poaceae, described with single species P. praemorsa (Nees) Hack. It is
a prostrate grass from Java, bearing shiny, reddish-brown hairy racemes with
each rachis joint (node) bearing two sessile and one pedicellate spikelets, and
the flowering glume ending with an awn (Hackel 1887,
1896). Based on morphological
characters, Clayton & Renvoize (1986) included Polytrias Hack. in the subtribe Saccharinae along with
genera such as Eriochrysis P. Beauv., Eulalia Kunth, Imperata Cirillo, Microstegium Nees and Pogonatherum P.Beauv. of Andropogoneae, an ecologically and economically important
tribe of C4 species, which include the important crops of the world
such as maize, sorghum and sugarcane. The genus Polytrias shows closer
affinity with Eulalia and Microstegium of the Saccharinaeon one hand and Sorghastrum of Sorghinae on the other, as per the multilocusphylogeny and phylogenomics (Welker et al. 2016).
The Polytrias Hack. (1887) resemblesthe genus Pogonatherum P. Beauv.
(1812) in its terminal solitary racemes and articulate
axis, but differs in the ternate spikelets. It is allied to Eulalia Kunth (1829) from which it differs strikingly in
its solitary racemes and the spikelets in triads but
both differing from Ischaemum L. (1753) in
their slender joints of the rachis, lower glumes not winged, never tuberculate or rugose. In certain herbaria (e.g., Taiwan), Polytrias was often misidentified as Eulalia leschenaultiana(Lin et al. 2013). In Flora of
British India, Hooker (1896) treated this taxon as doubtful and listed it in
the excluded species of Andropogon. Further, he (p.210) mentioned A. diversiflorus Steud. (in Zoll., Syst. Verz. 58. 1854) as Polytrias praemorsa Hack., a Javanese plant that was not
hitherto found in British India. But, later, Veldkamp (1991) brought to light
that one of the collections made by J.D. Hooker & T. Thomson from Khasia in 1850, under the name Pogonatherum crinitum, in reality, is Polytrias indica.
Veldkamp’s (1991)
assignment of Phleum indicum Houtt. to Polytrias created (heterotypic) synonymy. To mention
the relevant names discussed in this paper, we have: Polytrias praemorsa Hack. (1887), a combination without basionym, and that of 1889 by Hackelis a superfluous basionym (Veldkamp1991). The isotype of Andropogon diversiflorus Steud. in Leiden/Lund (L0050026: Zollinger,
H., #539, Java, Indonesia) was identified by J.Th.Hernard in 1921 as Polytrias praemorsa (Nees) Hack. Andropogon diversiflorus Steud. [in Zoll., Syst. Verz. 1: 58 (June)
1854, nomen] Syn. 1. 370 (July) 1854 is again a
synonym which makes Andropogon amaurus Büse (Miq., Pl. Jungh.
3: 360. Aug. 1854) and its combination [Polytrias amaura (Büse) Kuntze (1891)], superfluous. For further synonymy in
this regard, one can refer to Veldkamp (1991).
The genus Polytrias Hack. was first
reported from India from the Indian Botanic Garden, Shibpur,
West Bengal, by Jain & Pal (1968) as P. amaura (Büse) Kuntze. This grass was widely known as Polytrias amaura,
based on Andropogon amaurus,
which is a superfluous name for A. diversiflorus,
as mentioned above. Polytrias amaura was first
noticed as a weed in Sector 1 of the Botanic Garden but later it was found to
spread all over by the year 1985 (Pal 1987). Karthikeyan et
al. (1989) have placed this record/taxon under Eulalia amaura (Büse) Ohwi for the checklist of monocots of India.
Conversely,Polytrias indica was
reported from India as a garden escape, or on the path of naturalization. It is of interest to note that the
specific epithet “indica“ has nothing do with
the country India, as of nativity. It could be due to the historical reason. In Linnaean time, several European
botanists treated the Southeast Asian region under a common name, India (or
East India, Indiae Orientale, Indiae Orientalis). Moreover, on herbarium sheet, on the top-left side he inscribed the
origin of the plant as Planta Ind. Orient., which could refer to either Java or Ceylon (Wijnands et al. 2017). Perhaps, it could be the reason why Houttuyn(1792) did not bother to pay attention to the precise locality when he named ‘Phleum indicum’.
The residence
time (Pysek & Jarosik2005; Suthari et al. 2016) of this weed is 167 years
(1850-2017)) in Khasia (Meghalaya; on the authority
of Veldkamp 1991) and 49 years (1968–2017, Shibpur) in West Bengal, and 41 years (1959–2017) in
Andaman & Nicobar Islands (after Jain & Pal 1968).
Ischaemum
Phleum indicum was described by Houttuyn(Nat. Hist. 2(13): 198, t.90. f.2) in 1782 of a collection from Java. Houttuyn’s exotic herbaria were from the Cape of Good Hope
(South Africa), Ceylon (Sri Lanka), Java (Indonesia), and Japan. Houttuyn did
not go abroad to collect these plants (Wijnands et
al. 2017). The type of Phleum indicum was deposited in Herb. Houttuyn present in Geneva Herbarium (G), under Pre-Linnaean collections. Later, this name became the basionym for two different entities – Ischaemum indicum (Houtt.) Merr. (J. Arnold Arbor. 19: 320. 1938) and Polytrias indica (Houtt.) Veldkamp (Blumea 36: 180. 1991). Since Merrill (1938) conceived Phleum indicum Houtt. to be an Ischaemum and made the combination under the genus,
it suppressed the name I. ciliare Retz.
(1791). Hackel (1889) considered I. ciliare Retz. to be
polymorphic and recognized in it three varieties and four subvarieties. The name “Ischaemum indicum sensu Merr.” (Bor 1960), however,
continues to be used in all the Indian floras and the recent generic accounts
of Ischaemum (Sur 2001: 419; Srivastava & Nair 2010:75) in India, despite the fact
that Veldkamp (1991) clearly established that the holotype (specimen) of Phleum indicum is not an Ischaemumbut a Polytrias by virtue of its solitary
racemes and ternate flowers bearing one pedicellateand two sessile spikelets. Therefore, the name I.ciliare Retz. hasto be used in lieu of the replacement name “Ishaemum indicum (Houtt.) Merr.”.
One can
also know this fact from the Merrill’s (1938: 320) own making. Realizing Houttuyn’sname, Merrill made the observation that Houttuyn’smaterial was from Java and his species was clearly indicated as new (he used ‘mihi’ for the binomials coined by himself -
cf. Wijnands et al. 2017: 158), following the short
Latin diagnosis. To Merrill, Houttuyn’s illustration is a reasonably good one for the
grass currently known as Ischaemum ciliare Retz., which is common
in Java, and more definitely Houttuyn’s species seems
to be the same as Ischaemum ciliare Retz. var. genuinum Hack. In fact, Merrill mentioned I. ciliareRetz. as a synonym under the combination. Above all, Veldkamp(1991: 180) actuality pleaded for the reinstatement I. ciliareRetz. for the Ischaemum indicum auct. non (Houtt.) Merr.though it was not taken into the cognizance by the
subsequent workers on Indian grasses. When the ‘www.theplantlist.org’ mentions the name Ischaemum indicum (Houtt.) Merr. as a synonym of Polytrias indica (Houtt.) Veldkamp, many grass
workers perhaps simply adopted that name. Efloraofindia(Google sites) is no exception in this regard.
Polytrias indica: its description, distribution and IUCN
categorization
Polytrias indica (Houtt.) Veldkamp in Blumea 36: 180.1991.
Phleum indicum Houtt., Nat. Hist. 2(13): Aanwyz. Plaat. [1], 198. tab.90, fig.2. 1782. Lectotypus(designated by Veldkamp [Wijnandset al. 2017: 184]): Indonesia. Java: Anon. s.n.
(G-PREL [G00096222]) image!.
Pollinia praemorsa Nees ex Steud., Syn. Pl. Glumac. 1: 409. 1854. Polytrias praemorsa(Nees ex Steud.) Hack. in H.G.A. Engler & K.A.E. Prantl, Nat. Pflanzenfam. 2(2):
24.1887. Andropogon amaurus Büse in F.A.W.Miquel, Pl. Jungh., prepr.:
20. 1854, nom. illeg. Andropogon diversiflorus Steud., Syn. Pl. Glumac. 1: 370.1854. Polytrias diversiflora(Steud.) Nash in Torreya 5:
110. 1905. Polytrias amaura Kuntze, Revis. Gen. Pl. 2: 788.1891, nom. Illeg. Eulalia amaura (Büse) Ohwi in Bull. Tokyo Sci. Mus. 18, 2. 1942; Baker
& Brink, Fl. Java 3: 587. 1968.
Description: Culms terete,
hollow, creeping (mat-forming), stoloniferous,
perennial (hemicryptophyte) of 10–30 cm height;
plant parts and culm nodes glabrous. Leaf sheaths
shorter than internodes; ligule short, 0.5–1 mm long, ciliate; blades
linear, flat, 22–50 x 2–4 mm, margins scabrous, apex
acuminate. Inflorescence solitary raceme, 2–5 cm long; rachis
fragile, internodes linear, 2–2.5 mm long, pedicels linear, flattened,
shorter than spikelets. Spikelets hermaphroditic, 2 sessile and 1 pedicellate at
each joint; pedicelled spikeletsusually like sessile ones, often smaller, at times staminate; sessile spikelets falling with
adjacent internode and pedicel. Upper floret fertile and the
lower absent. Lower glume with inflexed margin,
oblong, 3–3.5 mm long, dorsally flat, 4-veined, 2-keeled, surface pilose in the lower half, ciliate, apex truncate, awnless. Upper glume oblong, 3–3.5 mm
long, chartaceous, 1–3-veined, mid-vein keeled,
apex truncate, ciliate, awnless. Upper lemmaovate or oblong, 1 mm long, smooth, apex 2-toothed, ending with hairs, awned; awn from a sinus, 8–12 mm long; column
twisted. Upper palea oblong,
1–1.2 mm long, hyaline. Anthers 3, 2–2.5
mm long, dark purple, styles with purple stigmas. Caryopsis obovoid, glabrous, apex rounded
(after Baker & Brink 1968; Chen & Phillips 2006; Lin et al. 2013;
present study).
English
vernacular: Java
Grass.
Illustrations: Houtt., Nat. Hist. 11(13): 198, t. 90, f. 2. 1782;
Panzer, Vollst. Pflanzensyst.
2: 259,t. 90, f.2. 1785, as Phleum indicum. Lin et al., Taiwan J. Biodivers. 5(1): 79, f.1.2013, as Polytrias indica.
Distribution: (a) Global: Native to SE Asia, including
China (Chen & Phillips 2006). It is found in tropical Australia, south-eastern China, Malaysia, Myanmar, New Guinea, the Philippines
and Vietnam (Lin et al. 2013). The
limited (three) specimens at Kew are from Borneo, Java and Thailand. It is an introduction elsewhere as a
lawn grass. It is reported from
grassy places on mountain slopes, grassy spaces, lawns, wastelands and roadsides.
(b) India: It is known from Meghalaya (Veldkamp 1991)
and West Bengal (Jain & Pal 1968) and not yet reported form Andhra Pradesh
and Telangana (V.S. Raju,
pers. obs.), Kerala (P.V. Sreekumar, pers. comm.),
Tamil Nadu (Kabeer & Nair 2009), Maharashtra (P. Lakshminarasimhan, pers. comm.) or other parts of India.
(c) Andaman Group of Islands: Pal (1987) reported its presence in
Andaman Islands of a collection made in Nov. 1976 (Gupta 4096, CAL) which is
yet to be traced; however, there are eight collections at PBL from Andaman
& Nicobar Islands in the folders of Polytrias indica which were originally labelled by the
collectors as Ischaemum indicum. We identify all these as of Ischaemum ciliareRetz.
Note: It is a good lawn and pasture grass of
great value (Bor 1960; Baker & Brink 1968) and as
well pollen donor to bees (Baker & Brink 1968; Pal 1981). It is a short-day plant and flowers in
winter (Remo-castro & Tabbada1977). Its pollen may cause allergy
to humans (Dacanay & Artiaga1969) when grown as a lawn grass. Therefore, it is to be classified as an environmental weed (present
study).
Invasive
Weed Status: Polytrias indica is reported to be invasive outside its
native range as per PIER (http://www.hear.org/pier/species/polytrias_indica.htm)
and HEAR (gcw/species/polytrias_amaura/). It was reported decades back as an
escape in India (Jain & Pal 1968; Pal 1987). However, it is yet to be confirmed as an
invasive species on the Indian mainland or the Andaman group of islands.
IUCN
Red List Status: Kumar
(2013) assessed Polytrias indica as Least Concern (LC). The assessment they made is of Ischaemum indicum sensu Merr. andit shall belong to Ischaemum ciliare Retz. It is a clear case of misapplication of name of the lawn grass Polytrias indica to
yet another but marsh grass from Java which entered
into India earlier to 1791. The
IUCN assessment of Polytrias indica, as of now, needs correction.
Conclusion
Polytrias indica (Houtt.) Veldkamp is the name of Java Lawn Grass misapplied to
another grass from Java found very common in India or elsewhere
which is to be rightly called Ischaemum ciliare Retz. Although Veldkamp(1991) clearly brought out the distinction of Polytrias indica of its ternate flowers, the confusion
continues in Indian grass literature. It pertains to the subtribe Sacchrinae rather than Ischaeminaeof Andropogoneae. The 2013 IUCN Red List
assessment of Ischaemum indicum sensu Merr. (i.e., I. ciliare Retz.) was attributed to Polytrias indica as a result of misapplication of the
name. Although Polytrias indica is stated to be invasive outside its
native range, it is yet to be confirmed as such in India. Thus far, it is known from Meghalaya and
West Bengal of India.
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