Bothriochloa bladhii

Template:Italic title Template:Taxobox Bothriochloa bladhii (commonly called, variously, Australian bluestem, Caucasian bluestem, forest-bluegrass, plains bluestem, and purple plume grass)<ref name=grin/> is a neotropic grass in the Poaceae family, found primarily in tropical Africa, and tropical and temperate Asia, and Australia. The type specimen was collected from China by Finnish botanist Peter Johan Bladh.<ref name=trop2/><ref name=huh>Template:Cite web</ref> The name of Bladh is honored in the specific epithet.

Distribution

Bothriochloa bladhii is native to northeast, west, west-central, and south tropical, and southern Africa (in Angola; Botswana; Burkina Faso; Cameroon; the Democratic Republic of the Congo; Ethiopia; Ghana; Kenya; Malawi; Mozambique; Namibia; Nigeria; Senegal; the provinces of Eastern Cape, Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo, Mpumalanga, North West, and Northern Cape of South Africa; Swaziland; Tanzania (including the Zanzibar Archipelago); Uganda; Zambia; and Zimbabwe); much of temperate and tropical, southern and eastern Asia, eastern Eurasia, Malesia, and the Middle East (in Afghanistan; Armenia; Azerbaijan; Bhutan; Burma; Cambodia; the provinces of Anhui, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hubei, Hunan, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Xinjiang, and Yunnan of China; India; Iran; Japan (including the Ryukyu Islands); southern Kazakhstan; Kyrgyzstan; Laos; Malaysia; Nepal; Pakistan; Papua New Guinea; Ciscaucasian Russia; Sri Lanka; Taiwan; Thailand; and Vietnam); and the states of New South Wales, Northern Territory, Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia of Australia.<ref name=grin/>

B. bladhii has also become naturalized elsewhere in the neotropics.<ref name=grin/>

Uses

Bothriochloa bladhii is used as stored food for local livestock, and as a grazing plant by both livestock and wild ruminants.<ref name=grin/> It is sometimes planted as a revegetator, to restore disturbed land.<ref name=grin/>

External links

• GrassBase page for Bothriochloa bladhii
• Picture of Bothriochloa bladhii from the Hawaiian Ecosystems at Risk project (HEAR) website, courtesy of the Bishop Museum, Herbarium PacificumTemplate:Panicoideae-stub