• 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) : Chrysopogon zizanioides (L.) Roberty
• Common name : Vetiver, Ghass, Cuscus grass, Vetiver, Khas-khas, Khus-khus
• Vernacular name : Khas (Hindi); Lavancha beru, Mudivala beru (Kannada); Usheer, Sugandhimool (Sanskrit); Khas-Khas, Ishir, Vala (Marathi); Ramacham, Vettiver (Malayalam)
• Habit : Herb
• Habitat : Banks of streams and backwaters
• Comments / notes : Often in plains in discrete clumps. Cultivated for its aromatic oil in tropical Africa and introduced to West Indies
• Flower, Fruit : July-December
• Distribution :
  • Andhra Pradesh : Srikakulam district
  • Karnataka : Bengaluru district, Mysuru district, Udupi district, Dakshina Kannada district, Mandya district
  • Kerala : Kannur district, Kozhikode district, Malappuram district, Palakkad district, Thrissur district, Ernakulam district, Idukki district, Alappuzha district, Pathanamthitta district, Kollam district
  • Maharashtra : Bhandara district, Mumbai-City district, Mumbai Suburban district, Chandrapur district, Kolhapur district, Nagpur district, Nashik district, Pune district, Raigad district, Ratnagiri district, Satara district, Sindhudurg district, Yavatmal district
  • Odisha : Cuttack district, Sambalpur district, Angul district, Kendrapara district, Ganjam district, Kalhandi district
• World Distribution : India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia. Cultivated in tropical Africa and introduced to West Indies
• Conservation Status : Not Evaluated (NE)
• Literature : H.O. Saxena & M. Brahmam, 1996- Flora of Orissa Vol. 4; R. S. Rao and S. H. Sreeramulu, 1986 - Flora of Srikakulam District; B. D. Sharma, S. Karthikeyan & N. P. Singh 1996 - Flora of Maharashtra state - Monocotyledons; Matthew, K.M., Flora of Tamil Nadu Carnatic, Vol.2. Diocesan Press, Madras. 1983; Sasidharan, N. 2011. Flowering plants of Kerala. DVD, V 2, KFRI.; Ramaswamy & Razi, 1973 – Flora of Bangalore District; Rao & Razi, 1981 – A Synoptic Flora of Mysore District; Gopalakrishna Bhat, 2003 – Flora of Udupi District; Gopalakrishna Bhat, 2014 - Flora of South Kanara
• 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=Vetiveria zizanioides. Downloaded on 20 May 2024.

Botanical Description

Herbarium Specimen(s)