Vascular Plants of North Carolina
Section: Common Name: Scientific Name: Family:
Account for Ravenna-grass - Tripidium ravennae   (L.) H. Scholz
Members of Poaceae:
Only member of Tripidium in NC.
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Section 5 » Family Poaceae
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Author(L.) H. Scholz
DistributionBlomquist (1948) lists this species for NC but provides no map. He says: "grown sparingly as an ornament in the southern coastal plain and remaining on abandoned home sites." Thus, he implies that plants are persistent but not truly established. There are no specimens at SERNEC for NC, though Weakley's (2018) map shows it as rare in the Coastal Plain (probably along the coast).

Native of southern Europe and western Asia; in N.A. no distribution is given (FNA).
AbundanceVery rare, probably not truly established in NC. Weakley (2018) warns that it is "Expected to become increasingly invasive in most of our area" [the Southeastern states].
HabitatFormer home sites.
PhenologyFlowering and fruiting August-?.
IdentificationRavenna-grass is very robust, growing to 12 feet tall. The leaves are numerous, very long, sharp-edged, and arch over. The inflorescences are held high above and resemble our native Sugarcane Plumegrass (Erianthus giganteus). The most obvious difference is the short awns of Ravenna-grass (2-5 mm vs. 10+ mm).
Taxonomic CommentsAlso known as Erianthus ravennae and Saccharum ravennae.

Other Common Name(s)
State RankSE
Global RankGNR
State Status
US Status
USACE-agcp
USACE-emp
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