Poaceae FAMILY

Echinochloa stagnina

Edibility

3/5

Medicinal

0/5

Safety & Hazards

None known

Botanical Description

Echinochloa stagnina is a robust perennial grass with elongated rhizomes and decumbent or prostrate culms that are 30 - 200cm long, rooting from their lower nodes. The rhizomes are stout and often floating, bearing culms up to 2 metres high (though occasionally annual and weaker)[ 332 Title The Useful Plants of West Tropical Africa. Publication Author Burkil. H. M. Publisher Royal Botanic Gardens; Kew. Year 1985 - 2004 ISBN Description Brief descriptions and details of the uses of over 4,000 plants. A superb, if terse, resource, it is also available electronically on the Web - see http://www.aluka.org/ ]. The plant is claimed to be the most useful of all wild plants in the Timbuktu area of Mali, providing as well as food and drink, material for thatch; caulking for boats; and a vegetable salt which can be heated until it turns to a powder and then used in making soap and indigo dyes[ 332 Title The Useful Plants of West Tropical Africa. Publication Author Burkil. H. M. Publisher Royal Botanic Gardens; Kew. Year 1985 - 2004 ISBN Description Brief descriptions and details of the uses of over 4,000 plants. A superb, if terse, resource, it is also available electronically on the Web - see http://www.aluka.org/ ]. The plant is sometimes cultivated, especially in India and the Niger area, as a low-yielding cereal[ 317 Title Mansfeld's Database of Agricultural and Horticultural Plants Publication Author Website http://mansfeld.ipk-gatersleben.de/pls/htmldb_pgrc/f?p=185:3:4292127278597336 Publisher Year 0 ISBN Description Terse details of a huge range of useful plants. ]. It is also sometimes grown in the Niger area for the sweet culms that are used to produce a sugary syrup and fermented beverages and for thatching[ 317 Title Mansfeld's Database of Agricultural and Horticultural Plants Publication Author Website http://mansfeld.ipk-gatersleben.de/pls/htmldb_pgrc/f?p=185:3:4292127278597336 Publisher Year 0 ISBN Description Terse details of a huge range of useful plants. ].

Habitat & Origin

Origintropical

Native RangeTropical Africa - savannah areas from Mauritania to Somalia, south to S. Africa; E. Asia - Pakistan, India to Indonesia.

HabitatSwamps and standing water, often forming floating mats[ 332 Title The Useful Plants of West Tropical Africa. Publication Author Burkil. H. M. Publisher Royal Botanic Gardens; Kew. Year 1985 - 2004 ISBN Description Brief descriptions and details of the uses of over 4,000 plants. A superb, if terse, resource, it is also available electronically on the Web - see http://www.aluka.org/ ]. The grass is locally abundant, colonising marshes, and open standing water to form nearly pure stands[ 332 Title The Useful Plants of West Tropical Africa. Publication Author Burkil. H. M. Publisher Royal Botanic Gardens; Kew. Year 1985 - 2004 ISBN Description Brief descriptions and details of the uses of over 4,000 plants. A superb, if terse, resource, it is also available electronically on the Web - see http://www.aluka.org/ ]. Found at elevations up to 2,300 metres[ 299 Title Protabase - Plant Resources of Tropical Africa. Publication Author Website http://www.prota.org Publisher Year 0 ISBN Description An excellent on-line database with detailed information on over 3,200 species of useful plants of Africa. ].