Common name
Sugarcane

Derivation
Saccharum L., Sp. Pl. 1: 54 (1753); from the Latin saccharum (sugar), alluding to the sweet juice of the culms.

officinarum- from the Latin officina (drug shop) and -arum (pertaining to). Used medicinally.

Published in
Sp. Pl. 54 (1753).

Habit
Perennial. Culms erect, robust, 200–600 cm tall. Mid-culm internodes solid, pruinose (below nodes). Ligule a fringed membrane. Leaf-blades linear or lanceolate, 70–150 cm long, 30–60 mm wide, glaucous. Leaf-blade surface scaberulous. Leaf-blade margins scaberulous. Leaf-blade apex acuminate.

Inflorescence
Peduncle glabrous or pubescent above. Panicle open, pyramidal, dense, 50–100 cm long. Primary panicle branches whorled at most nodes, 5–10 cm long. Panicle branches glabrous, bearded in axils. Rames 5–10 cm long. Rhachis fragile at the nodes, subterete, glabrous on margins or ciliate on margins. Rame internodes filiform.

Spikelets
Spikelets in pairs, one sessile and fertile and the other (companion) spikelet pedicelled, subequal. Pedicels filiform, glabrous or ciliate. Fertile spikelets 2-flowered, comprising 1 fertile floret, without rhachilla extension, lanceolate, dorsally compressed, 3.5–4 mm long, falling entire, deciduous from the base or with accessory branch structures. Spikelet callus bearded, base truncate. Spikelet callus hairs white, 7–12 mm long, 200–300% of length of spikelet.

Glumes
Glumes similar, firmer than fertile lemma. Lower glume lanceolate, 100% of length of spikelet, membranous, much thinner above, 2-keeled, 2–4-nerved. Lower glume surface flat. Lower glume apex acute. Upper glume lanceolate, 100% of length of spikelet, membranous, much thinner above, 1–3-nerved. Upper glume margins eciliate or ciliolate. Upper glume apex acute.

Florets
Basal sterile floret 1, without significant palea. Lemma of lower sterile floret lanceolate, 100% of length of spikelet, hyaline, 0-nerved, ciliate on margins, acute. Fertile lemma linear, 3.5–5 mm long, hyaline, 0-nerved. Lemma margins ciliate. Palea absent or minute. Lodicules 2, cuneate, ciliate. Anthers 3, 1.5 mm long. Grain with adherent pericarp, oblong, terete, 1.5 mm long. Embryo 15% of length of grain.

Continental Distribution:
Europe, Africa, Temperate Asia, Tropical Asia, Australasia, Pacific, North America, South America.

Australian Distribution:
Queensland: Cook, South Kennedy, Moreton. Cultivated in NSW.

Classification. (GPWG 2001):
Panicoideae: Andropogoneae

Notes
Occasionally established spontaneously in regions where sugar cane is grown.
No map has been generated as there are insufficient collections to provide a realistic distribution.