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Rottboellia cochinchinensis
Also called Guinea Fowl Grass, Kelly Grass, Raoul Grass, Itch Grass, Kokoma Grass, Shamva Grass
Itchgrass is a tall, tufted annual grass from the tropics, grown mainly as a weed rather than an ornamental. It is best known for its bristly leaf sheaths that irritate the skin, and it is a serious weed of maize, rice, sorghum and sugar cane.
Rottboellia cochinchinensis is a species of flowering plant in the family Poaceae. This grass is known by the common names Itchgrass, Raoul grass, corngrass, Kokoma grass, Guinea-fowl grass, jointed grass, Shamwa grass and Kelly grass. It is a tall, tufted annual grass whose stems (culms) grow up to 3 metres (9 ft 10 in) in height with leaf-blades of up to 45 centimetres (1 ft 6 in) in length. The species flowers at the apex of culms in the form of spike-like racemes composed of paired spikelets. The common name Itchgrass comes from the bristly (hispid) leaf-sheath which can be irritating to the skin.
Rottboellia cochinchinensis is native to tropical Asia and Africa and has also been introduced to the Americas where it is often considered to be an invasive species. It is a major weed of a wide range of crops including maize, rice, sorghum and sugar cane.
Rottboellia cochinchinensis uses C4 carbon fixation during photosynthesis and as such is mostly found in warm tropical climates with high sunlight, generally in the tropics and between the northern and southern 20 °C isotherms. Carbon fixation by this pathway allows plants to avoid the wasteful process of photorespiration and as such confers a competitive advantage to species such as R. cochinchinensis in high light intensity, high heat and low humidity conditions over C3 plants.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Rottboellia cochinchinensis by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
