''Heteropogon contortus'' is a tropical, perennial tussock grass with a native distribution encompassing Southern

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

, southern

Asia Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...

, Northern

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

Oceania Oceania ( , ) is a region, geographical region including Australasia, Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. Outside of the English-speaking world, Oceania is generally considered a continent, while Mainland Australia is regarded as its co ...

, and southwestern

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

. The species has also become a naturalised weed in tropical and subtropical regions in the

Americas The Americas, sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North America and South America.''Webster's New World College Dictionary'', 2010 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio. When viewed as a sing ...

and East Asia. The plant grows to in height and is favoured in most environments by frequent

burning Combustion, or burning, is a high-temperature exothermic redox chemical reaction between a fuel (the reductant) and an oxidant, usually atmospheric oxygen, that produces oxidized, often gaseous products, in a mixture termed as smoke. Combust ...

. The plants develop characteristic dark seeds with a single long awn at one end and a sharp spike at the other. The awn becomes twisted when dry and straightens when moistened, and in combination with the spike is capable of drilling the seed into the soil. The species is known by many common names, including black speargrass, tanglehead, ''steekgras'' (in

Afrikaans Afrikaans is a West Germanic languages, West Germanic language spoken in South Africa, Namibia and to a lesser extent Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe and also Argentina where there is a group in Sarmiento, Chubut, Sarmiento that speaks the Pat ...

) and ''pili'' (in Hawaiian, ultimately from

Proto-Austronesian Proto-Austronesian (commonly abbreviated as PAN or PAn) is a proto-language. It is the reconstructed ancestor of the Austronesian languages, one of the world's major language families. Proto-Austronesian is assumed to have begun to diversify in ...

*''pilit''₁ "to adhere/stick"). ''H. contortus'' is a valuable

pasture Pasture (from the Latin ''pastus'', past participle of ''pascere'', "to feed") is land used for grazing. Types of pasture Pasture lands in the narrow sense are enclosed tracts of farmland, grazed by domesticated livestock, such as horses, c ...

species across much of its range. However, it has also been responsible for the elimination of the

wool Wool is the textile fiber obtained from sheep and other mammals, especially goats, rabbits, and camelids. The term may also refer to inorganic materials, such as mineral wool and glass wool, that have some properties similar to animal w ...

industry over much of Australia due to the seeds becoming embedded in the wool and skin of sheep and devaluing the wool and killing the animals. ''H. contortus '' seeds are also responsible for similar injuries in dogs with thick undercoats, or becoming embedded in the socks and skin of hikers.

Uses

Native Hawaiians Native Hawaiians (also known as Indigenous Hawaiians, Kānaka Maoli, Aboriginal Hawaiians, or simply Hawaiians; , , , and ) are the Indigenous Polynesian people of the Hawaiian Islands. Hawaiʻi was settled at least 800 years ago by Polynesian ...

used ''pili'' to

thatch Thatching is the craft of building a roof with dry vegetation such as straw, Phragmites, water reed, Cyperaceae, sedge (''Cladium mariscus''), Juncus, rushes, Calluna, heather, or palm branches, layering the vegetation so as to shed water away fr ...

''hale'' (houses). Ruler

Pilikaʻaiea Pilikaʻaiea (or Pili-auau; the short form: Pili) was ''Aliʻi nui of Hawaii, Aliʻi Nui'' of Hawaii (island), Hawaiʻi. He was a sovereign Tribal chief, chief, who deposed the indigenous chief, Kapawa. Name The Hawaiian word ''pili'' is the n ...

was named after the grass, and his royal house was Pili line (''Hale o Pili'').

Gallery

Image:Heteropogon contortus seed.jpg, Single seed demonstrating long twisted awn Image:Heteropogon contortus seedhead.jpg, File:Heteropogon contortus W IMG_3500.jpg,

References

External links

{{Taxonbar, from=Q2716358 Panicoideae Poales of Australia Flora of Hawaii Flora of Queensland Forages

Uses

Gallery

See also

References

External links