Grasses at Sungei Buloh Nature Park: Guinea Grass and Lallang

WETlands
a publication of Sungei Buloh Nature Park

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Vol 7 No 2
Aug 2000

The Truth
about Grass

Butterfly-Plant Relationships

List of butterflies
(1999-2000)

Beauty to Behold how animals see

More about the eyes of animals

Nesting Birds
at Sungei Buloh

Nesting
Little Heron

A walk with a Volunteer Guide: Keith Hillier

Nature Photographer
with a Mission:
Julian Wong

Earth Day Programmes

Nature in
the City

The Truth
about Grass

James Gan
Senior Conservation Officer
shares with you some of the unnoticed
virtues of the Park's wild grasses

Sungei Buloh Nature Park is home to mangrove trees and plants. But do you know that there are many other plants not necessarily associated with the mangroves found in the Park? They grow in inconspicuous places such as the side of tracks and footpaths.		"A weed is a plant whose virtues have not been discovered" Ralph Waldo Emerson
Most people know them as grasses. Some of them are commonly called weeds. The grasses have been largely ignored perhaps because they are not attractive to many people. They are, however, ecologically important plants. Grass flowers do not have petals. They are usually very small (no more than a few millimetres) and arranged in a group to form spikelets, spikes and panicles. The fruits develop on these spikelets and are like grains of very small rice.
Guinea Grass	Grass seeds are important to grain-eating birds as a food source. The Scaly-breasted Munia (Lonchura punctulata) and the Javan Munia (Lonchura leucogastroides) are examples of birds that depend on the Guinea Grass (Panicum maximum) for their food.	Scaly-breasted Munia
	This grass is widespread throughout the Park and can also be found around the Visitor Centre. It is a tall grass growing up to 2m high.

Once devoid of grass grains, the grass also serves as a lining material for the globular nests of these birds. The dense clumps of grass are also favourite nesting sites for birds like the Yellow-bellied Prinias (Prinia flaviventris).

Lallang (Imperata cylindrica) is another grass found in the Park.

*Lallang*	It is an important nesting material for birds such as the Baya Weaver (Ploceus philippinus). These birds make use of the long blades of grass to construct symmetrical hanging homes for which they are known. Birds such as the Olive-backed Sunbird (Nectrinia jugularis) also use the white long fine hairs of the fruits to line their nests.	Baya Weaver's nests
	Lallang patches can also be nesting sites. Slaty-breasted Rails (Rallus striatus) are known to have nested among lallang.

Featured here are just two of the many grasses that are important to some of the birds in the Park. So the next time you see these grasses, remember, they have a reason for being there.