biology

Saccharum officinarum

Saccharum officinarum is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Saccharum officinarum rather than just read about it. In short: Saccharum officinarum is a large, strong-growing species of grass in the sugarcane genus. Its stout stalks are rich in sucrose, a disaccharide sugar which accumulates in the stalk internodes.

Key takeaways

Saccharum officinarum belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Saccharum officinarum to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Saccharum officinarum from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Saccharum officinarum is a large, strong-growing species of grass in the sugarcane genus. Its stout stalks are rich in sucrose, a disaccharide sugar which accumulates in the stalk internodes. It originated in New Guinea, and is now cultivated in tropical and subtropical countries worldwide for the production of sugar, ethanol and other products. It is one of the most productive and most intensively cultivated kinds of sugarcane.

Description Saccharum officinarum, a perennial plant, grows in clumps consisting of a number of strong unbranched stems. A network of rhizomes forms under the soil which sends up secondary shoots near the parent plant. The stems vary in colour, being green, pinkish, or purple and can reach 5 metres (16 feet) in height. They are jointed, nodes being present at the bases of the alternate leaves. The internodes contain a fibrous white pith immersed in sugary sap. The elongated, linear, green leaves have thick midribs and saw-toothed edges and grow to a length of about 30 to 60 centimetres (12 to 24 inches) and width of 5 cm (2 in). The terminal inflorescence is a panicle up to 60 cm (24 in) long, a pinkish plume that is broadest at the base and tapering towards the top. The spikelets are borne on side branches and are about 3 millimetres (1⁄8 in) long and are concealed in tufts of long, silky hair. The fruits are dry and each one contains a single seed. Sugarcane harvest typically occurs before the plants flower, as the flowering process causes a reduction in sugar content.

Taxonomy

Saccharum officinarum was first domesticated in New Guinea and the islands east of the Wallace Line by Papuans, where it is the modern center of diversity. Beginning at around 6,000 BP it was selectively bred from the native S. robustum. From New Guinea it spread westwards to Island Southeast Asia after contact with Austronesians, where it hybridized with S. spontaneum. It can interbreed with other sugarcane species, such as S. sinense and S. barberi. The major commercial cultivars are complex hybrids.

Genome Zhang et al., 2018 provides a genome of the related species S. spontaneum.

Pests S. officinarum is a common host of the oriental beetle (Exomala orientalis). During their larval stage, these beetles feed on the roots of the plant which affects its growth. Current pesticides are still being researched.

Uses Portions of the stem of this and several other species of sugarcane have been used from ancient times for chewing to extract the sweet juice. It was cultivated in New Guinea about 8,000 years ago for this purpose. Extraction of the juice and boiling to concentrate it was probably first done in India more than 2,000 years ago. Saccharum officinarum and its hybrids are grown for the production of sugar, ethanol, and other industrial uses in tropical and subtropical regions around the world. The stems and the byproducts of the sugar industry are used for feeding to livestock. Pigs fed on sugarcane juice and a soy-based protein supplement produced stronger piglets that grow faster than those on a more conventional diet. As its specific name (officinarum, "of dispensaries") implies, it is also used in traditional medicine both internally and externally. About 70% of the sugar produced worldwide comes from S. officinarum and hybrids using this species.

In culture The Hawaiian word for this species is kō.

See also Domesticated plants and animals of Austronesia

References

External links Media related to Saccharum officinarum at Wikimedia Commons Data related to Saccharum officinarum at Wikispecies

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Saccharum officinarum

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Saccharum officinarum claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Saccharum officinarum before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Saccharum officinarum ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Saccharum officinarum

In research: Saccharum officinarum appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Saccharum officinarum in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Saccharum officinarum is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Austronesian agriculture, Botanical taxa named by Carl Linnaeus, Crops originating from Asia, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Saccharum officinarum outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Saccharum officinarum in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Saccharum officinarum means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Saccharum officinarum out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Saccharum officinarum in simple terms?

Saccharum officinarum is a large, strong-growing species of grass in the sugarcane genus. Its stout stalks are rich in sucrose, a disaccharide sugar which accumulates in the stalk internodes.

Why does Saccharum officinarum matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Saccharum officinarum?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Saccharum officinarum.