• Family : POACEAE
  (Grass Family)
• Family (Hindi name) : GHAS FAMILY (घास फैमिली)
• Family (as per The APG System III) : POACEAE
• Species Name (as per The Plant List) : Heteropogon contortus (L.) P.Beauv. ex Roem. & Schult.
• Common name : Tangle head Grass, Spear grass
• Vernacular name : Oobu hullu, Gandu bin (Kannada); Oopu gaddi, Eragaddi (Telugu); Kali Kusali, Kursali, Nanisunkhali, Pandhri Sukal (Marathi); Oosipullu, Shoolampullu (Malayalam)
• Habit : Herb
• Habitat : Open deciduous forests
• Comments / notes : Common in open grasslands. On foothills to 1200m and slopes. Often the seeds gets entangled in clothes.
• Flower, Fruit : July-December
• Collector(s) Name : Raja K. Swamy, Arun Singh & K. Sankara Rao; Raja K. Swamy
• Collection Date : 28-11-2014; 15-11-2014
• Collection Nos : HJCB-0398; HJCB-E-233
• Collection Locality : Tirumala Hills, Chittoor distric (AP); Batrepalli, Anantapur district (AP)
• Distribution :
  • Andhra Pradesh : Throughout Andhra Pradesh
  • Karnataka : Bengaluru district, Hassan district, Mysuru district, Tumakuru district, Udupi district, Dakshina Kannada district
  • Kerala : All districts of Kerala
  • Maharashtra : All districts of Maharashtra
  • Odisha : Throughout Odisha
• Native : Pantropical
• World Distribution : Tropical and warm Temperate regions.
• Conservation Status : Not Evaluated (NE)
• Literature : J.L.Ellis, 1990- Flora of Nallamalais Vol. 2; H.O. Saxena & M. Brahmam, 1996- Flora of Orissa Vol. 4; R. S. Rao et al., 1986 - Flora of West Godavari District; R. S. Rao and S. H. Sreeramulu, 1986 - Flora of Srikakulam District; H. O. Saxena and M. Brahmam, 1989 - The Flora of Similipahar (Similipal), Orissa; N.P.Singh, 1988. Flora of Eastern Karnataka; Saldanha & Nicolson, 1976 – Flora of Hassan District; Gowda, 2004 – Flora of Sringeri; Ramaswamy & Razi, 1973 – Flora of Bangalore District; Seetharam et al., 2000 – Flora of Gulbarga District; Rao & Razi, 1981 – A Synoptic Flora of Mysore District; Gopalakrishna Bhat, 2003 – Flora of Udupi District; Bhaskar & Kushalappa, 2013- Flora of Tumkur District; Gopalakrishna Bhat, 2014 - Flora of South Kanara ;B. D. Sharma, S. Karthikeyan & N. P. Singh 1996 - Flora of Maharashtra state - Monocotyledons; Sasidharan, N. 2011. Flowering plants of Kerala. DVD, V 2, KFRI.
• Citation : Sankara Rao, K., Raja K Swamy, Deepak Kumar, Arun Singh R. and K. Gopalakrishna Bhat (2019). Flora of Peninsular India. http://peninsula.ces.iisc.ac.in/plants.php?name=Heteropogon contortus. Downloaded on 21 November 2024.

Botanical Description

Herbarium Specimen(s)

Field Image(s)