ABSTRACT
Because of a mistake made by Linnaeus’ son in 1779, associating the description of a different species with a figure of Rottboellia exaltata, this latter species has now been renamed R. cochinchinensis (Lour.) W. D. Clayton 2 , and must now be so referred to. This grass of the tribe Andropogoneae, originally found in India, has spread to many other countries and is now a serious weed of sugar cane, maize, sorghum, cotton, and various grain legume crops. Indeed, it is still spreading quite rapidly. Bor 1 gave its distribution as tropical Asia, Africa, and Australia, but it has lately become a serious weed in the West Indies, in Latin America and, more recently, in the U.S. In 1977 it was present only in Louisiana and Florida, but 6 years later it was reported in several more southern states. 8 , 12 It looms as a formidable weed of the future, and its biology needs to be much better known.
