Lovegrass - Chrysopogon aciculatus

Common Name :	Golden Beardgrass, Lovegrass, Needle grass.
Botanical Name :	Chrysopogon aciculatus
Family :	Poaceae
Bengali Name :	Chora kata, Prem kata.
Photo Taken :	Bangladesh

Lovegrass is a massive weed grass plant. Grows throughout the Bangladesh, almost everywhere. Starting from the roadside to any fields, unused land to bank of river or ponds. In Bangladesh this is known as Chora kata, Prem kata. In English the plant has several names such as lesser spear grass, Mackie's pest, Golden Beardgrass, Lovegrass, Mackie's pest, Needle grass, etc. Botanical name of the plant is Chrysopogon aciculatus and belongs to the grass family Poaceae.





Lovegrass (Chrysopogon aciculatus) is available at all season and never dies. It uses to produce flower during rainy season. The grass itself is almost remain leveled to the ground (mat forming grass), but the flower uses to be over a 20-30 centimeter stalk. This inflorescence flower has a feather (or beard) like the white portion at the bottom of each flower from cluster.





Lovegrass (Chrysopogon aciculatus) flower has spikelet at the pinnacle of the flower. Whenever a pedestrian uses to pass by, it uses to get stuck on their footwear. Since most of our playing fields are covered with this grass naturally, it's hard to walk over there by saving your footwear. And at the end of the day you'd find thousands (metaphorically) of flowery thrones stuck on your pant. Possibly this is a reason to call this as Love grass.





Lovegrass is an invasive weed and almost impossible to eradicate. This uses to spread using its seeds and the roots. People use the roots of the grass for medical purpose. Also existence of this mat formed grass around the riverbank and the pond-side can prevent from erosion.





Photos of Lovegrass (Chrysopogon aciculatus) were taken from the following location of Bangladesh. In Bangla this is known as Prem kata (প্রেম কাঁটা), Chora kata (চোরা কাঁটা), etc.
1. July 2011: Rangamati.


This article has written by Lonely Traveler,
for the blog http://icflora.blogspot.com/