Cladium

Cladium
Cladium
Cladium mariscus
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
(unranked): Angiosperms
(unranked): Monocots
(unranked): Commelinids
Order: Poales
Family: Cyperaceae
Genus: Cladium
P.Browne
Species

See text

Cladium (Fen-sedge, Sawgrass or Twig-sedge) is a genus of large sedges, with a worldwide distribution in tropical and temperate regions. These are plants characterized by long, narrow (grass-like) leaves having sharp, often serrated (sawtooth-like) margins, and flowering stems 1–3 m tall bearing a much-branched inflorescence. The number of species it contains is disputed, with different authors accepting between two and 60 species as distinct.

C. jamaicense is common throughout the tropical Americas, one typical and well-known area of extensive saw-grass growth is the Florida Everglades; sawgrass is the plant referred to by the descriptor, "River of Grass". Across the Everglades, C. jamaicense occurs in patches of dense growth surrounded by areas of very sparse growth. Because of the sharp, saw-like serrulations on the blades, dense beds of sawgrass can be dangerous to attempt to navigate through (the blades easily cut flesh). The dense sawgrass beds harbor little animal life, but in the Everglades they are used as a habitat by American Alligators to build nests (Lodge, 1994). It is also considered to be indigenous to the Hawaiian Islands, where it dominates a considerable portion of the largest marsh in Hawaii, Kawai Nui Marsh.

Sawgrass may be useful as a source for developing biofuel (ethanol), possibly replacing corn as the cellulose (the basis for developing ethanol) source of choice. Studies on switchgrass (a prairie plant which should not be mistaken for sawgrass) demonstrate that, since it is such a laborless crop to grow, it yields 540% of the energy used to harvest, and process it into ethanol. It is also carbon neutral, absorbing about the same amount of greenhouse gases while it's growing as it emits when burned as fuel.[1]

Selected species

  • Cladium californicum (S.Watson) O'Neill – California Sawgrass (Southwestern North America); doubtfully distinct from C. jamaicense.
  • Cladium chinense (Eastern Asia); doubtfully distinct from C. mariscus.
  • Cladium jamaicense (C. mariscus subsp. jamaicense) – Sawgrass (Warm temperate and tropical New World, except where replaced by C. californicum)
  • Cladium mariscoides – Smooth Sawgrass (Temperate North America)
  • Cladium mariscus – Great Fen-sedge, Saw-sedge (Europe, Asia, Africa)
  • Cladium nipponense (Eastern Asia); doubtfully distinct from C. mariscus.
  • Cladium procerum – Leafy Twig-sedge (Australia)

References

  1. ^ Biofuels on a Big Scale from ScienceNOW
  • Lodge, Thomas E. 1994. The Everglades Handbook. Understanding the Ecosystem. St. Lucie Press, DelRay Beach, Fl. 228 p. ISBN 1-884015-06-9

External links

Media related to Cladium at Wikimedia Commons Data related to Cladium at Wikispecies

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