''Phalaris minor'' is a species of

grass Poaceae ( ), also called Gramineae ( ), is a large and nearly ubiquitous family (biology), family of monocotyledonous flowering plants commonly known as grasses. It includes the cereal grasses, bamboos, the grasses of natural grassland and spe ...

native to

North Africa North Africa (sometimes Northern Africa) is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region. However, it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of t ...

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

, and

South Asia South Asia is the southern Subregion#Asia, subregion of Asia that is defined in both geographical and Ethnicity, ethnic-Culture, cultural terms. South Asia, with a population of 2.04 billion, contains a quarter (25%) of the world's populatio ...

. The

bunchgrass 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 perennia ...

is widely naturalised elsewhere. Common names include little seed canary grass, small-seeded canary grass, small canary grass, lesser-canary grass, ''guli danda'' (

Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...

), and ''sittee booti'' (

Urdu Urdu (; , , ) is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in South Asia. It is the Languages of Pakistan, national language and ''lingua franca'' of Pakistan. In India, it is an Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of Indi ...

).''Phalaris minor''.
IDAO.

Description

''Phalaris minor'' grows as a tufted annual

up to in height. It has a spike-like

panicle In botany, 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 p ...

Taxonomy

It has had an uneventful taxonomic history. It was first published under its current name by

Anders Jahan Retzius Anders Jahan Retzius (3 October 1742 – 6 October 1821) was a Swedish chemist, botanist and entomologist. Biography Born in Kristianstad, he matriculated at Lund University in 1758, where he graduated as a filosofie magister in 1766. He also ...

in 1783, and has retained that name since. It has no synonyms, and no infraspecific taxa.

Uses

It is used as a fodder or forage for livestock and birdseed, but is poisonous to some mammals, and is a potential contaminant of seed crops.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q3696206

minor Minor may refer to: Common meanings * Minor (law), a person not under the age of certain legal activities. * Academic minor, a secondary field of study in undergraduate education Mathematics * Minor (graph theory), a relation of one graph to an ...

Bunchgrasses of Africa Bunchgrasses of Asia Bunchgrasses of Europe Flora of France Grasses of Pakistan Flora of Western Asia Flora of North Africa Flora of Algeria Flora of Cyprus Flora of Egypt Flora of Eritrea Flora of Italy Flora of Morocco Flora of Afghanistan Flora of Iran Flora of Iraq Flora of Israel Flora of Syria Flora of Portugal Flora of Palestine (region) Flora of Spain Taxa named by Anders Jahan Retzius Plants described in 1783 Flora of Malta