Lamarckia aurea (L.) Moench

 

Poaceae (Grass Family)

 

Europe

 

Golden-Top   

                                       April Photo

 

Plant Characteristics:  Low annual, cespitose, glabrous; stems generally erect, 7-40 cm.; cauline lvs. +/- evenly distributed, blade 2.5-9 cm., 2.5-7 mm. wide, flat; ligule 3-7 mm., membranous, glabrous, tip +/- irregularly cu; infl. panicle-like, terminal, 2-8 cm., dense, golden yellow to purplish; axis short-white-hairy in branch axils; spikelets short-stalked, with 1 fertile terminal floret on a long rachilla-joint, and 1-3 sterile spikelets in spreading to drooping clusters, each cluster generally falling as 1 unit; fertile spikelet with glumes 2.5-4 mm., +/- equal, generally equal the spikelet in length; florets 2; lower floret fertile, 2.5-3 mm., lemma awned from near tip, awn 6-7 mm., straight; upper floret sterile, +/- 0.5 mm., awn 4-5 mm.; sterile spikelet 6-9 mm., longer than glumes, linear, glumes longer than lower floret; florets 5-8; lemmas +/- overlapping, 1.5-2 mm., obtuse, tip +/- fringed, awn 0.

 

Habitat:  Common weed in waste places at low altitudes, cismontane including islands.  Feb.-May.

 

Name:  Named for Jean Baptiste de Lamarck, 1744-1829.  French anatomist and student of classification.  Proposed the first general theory on evolution.  (Jaeger 311).  Latin, aurum, gold, the color of gold.  (Jaeger 31).

 

General:  Common on the Castaway's Bluffs, with a few plants at 23rd Street.  Photographed on the Castaway's Bluffs.  (my comments).      This plant, sometimes cultivated for ornament, is an introduction from the Mediterranean region, and now occurs in cultivated and waste ground from Texas to California.  It is less common in the northern part of the state than in the southern part, where it was in great abundance as early as 1881.  (Robbins 85).      Lamarckia has been known to cause hay fever and asthma.  (Fuller 382).      One species in the genus.  (Munz, Flora So. Calif. 978).

 

Text Ref:  Hickman, Ed. 1267; Munz, Flora So. Calif. 978; Robbins et al. 85. 

Photo Ref:  March-April 83 # 5,16; April 6 83 # 13; Mar 2 85 # 2.

Identity: by John Johnson.

First Found:  April 1983.

 

Computer Ref:  Plant Data 325.

Have plant specimen.

Last edit 11/26/04.  

 

                                  April Photo                                                                          April Photo