Present on Pacific Islands?  no

Primarily a threat at high elevations?  no

Other Latin names:  Olyra paniculata Sw.

Common name(s): [more details]

English: bambou tibi, carrycillo

Spanish: carricillo, carrucillo, carrycillo, cortadora, lambedora, lintentwa, sonadora

Habit:  grass

Description:  "Culms stout, mostly 3-5 m or more tall, the lower 1/2- 2/3 unbranched and with greatly reduced, bladeless or nearly bladeless leaves, the upper portion with spreading, often fascicled branches to 1 m long. Sheath with broad, auriculate apical margins. Blades glabrous, commonly 15-25 cm long and 3-6 cm broad, acuminate at apex, broad and asymmetrical below, abruptly contracted to a short, firm petiolelike base. Panicles 10-15 cm long and about 2/3 as broad at base, the stout primary branches each terminated by a single pistillate spikelet, the staminate spikelets borne on slender, appressed, often rebranched lateral branches. Pistillate spikelets with their long-attenuate and awned glumes mostly 2-3 cm long. Fruit smooth, shiny, white (rarely black), about 5 mm long" (Howard, 1979; pp. 37-39).

Description from GrassBase.

Habitat/ecology:  "Carricillo is moderately intolerant to intermediate in tolerance to shade. It is widespread and relatively common in the understory of thin canopy forests, brushy forests, small openings, and edges of high forest. These are most often medium to late-secondary forests but can be primary forests and remnants. Carricillo grows on a wide variety of well-drained to somewhat poorly drained soils with pH's from near neutral to about 5.5 over sedimentary (including limestone), igneous, and metamorphic (including ultramafic) rocks. Elevation may vary from near sea level to 1,100 m in areas that receive from about 1000 to more than 3000 mm of mean annual precipitation (author's observation, Croat 1978, Shaka and others 1997, Stevens and others 2001)"  (Wildland shrubs of the United States and its territories).

Propagation:  Seed.  "Birds disperse the seeds (Burkill 1994, Judziewicz and others 1999)"  (Wildland shrubs of the United States and its territories).

Native range:  Southern Mexico and Central America to northern South America and throughout the Antilles (Howard, 1979; pp. 37-39). Whether or not it is native to the old world is open to question.

Presence:

Pacific Rim
Country/Terr./St. & Island group	Location	Cited status & Cited as invasive & Cited as cultivated & Cited as aboriginal introduction?	Reference & Comments
Colombia Colombia	Colombia (Republic of)	native	U.S. Dept. Agr., Agr. Res. Serv. (2011)
Costa Rica Costa Rica	Costa Rica (Republic of)	native	U.S. Dept. Agr., Agr. Res. Serv. (2011)
Ecuador (Mainland) Ecuador	Ecuador (Republic of) (continental)	native	U.S. Dept. Agr., Agr. Res. Serv. (2011)
El Salvador El Salvador	El Salvador (Republic of)	native	U.S. Dept. Agr., Agr. Res. Serv. (2011)
Guatemala Guatemala	Guatemala (Republic of)	native	U.S. Dept. Agr., Agr. Res. Serv. (2011)
Honduras Honduras	Honduras (Republic of)	native	U.S. Dept. Agr., Agr. Res. Serv. (2011)
Mexico Mexico	Mexico (United Mexican States)	native	U.S. Dept. Agr., Agr. Res. Serv. (2011)
Nicaragua Nicaragua	Nicaragua (Republic of)	native	U.S. Dept. Agr., Agr. Res. Serv. (2011)
Panama Panama	Panama (Republic of)	native	U.S. Dept. Agr., Agr. Res. Serv. (2011)
Perú Perú	Perú (Republic of)	native	U.S. Dept. Agr., Agr. Res. Serv. (2011)

Comments:  Reported invasive in Uganda (Rejmánek, 1996).

Control:  "Eradication can be done by grubbing out individual plants or probably by cutting and spraying the sprouts with glyphosate or other grass herbicides"  (Wildland shrubs of the United States and its territories).

Additional information:
Photo and fact sheet from "Wildland shrubs of the United States and its territories: thamnic descriptions" (PDF format).

Additional online information about Olyra latifolia is available from the Hawaiian Ecosystems at Risk project (HEAR).

Information about Olyra latifolia as a weed (worldwide references) may be available from the Global Compendium of Weeds (GCW).

Taxonomic information about Olyra latifolia may be available from the Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN).

References:

Francis, John K., ed. 2009. Wildland Shrubs of the United States and its Territories: Thamnic Descriptions General Technical Report IITF-WB-1 U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service International Institute of Tropical Forestry and Shrub Sciences Laboratory (online resource).

Howard, Richard A. 1979. Flora of the Lesser Antilles: Leeward and Windward Islands. Vol. 3, Monocotyledoneae. Arnold Arboretum, Harvard University. 586 pp.

Rejmánek, M. 1996. Species richness and resistance to invasions. In: Orians, G., R. Dirzo and J. H. Cushman (eds.). Biodiversity and ecosystem processes in tropical forests. Springer-Verlag. pp. 153-172.

U.S. Dept. Agr., Agr. Res. Serv. 2011. National Genetic Resources Program. Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN). Online searchable database.

U.S. Dept. Agr., Nat. Res. Cons. Serv. 2011. The PLANTS Database. National Plant Data Center, Baton Rouge, LA 70874-4490 USA.