Digitaria ciliaris |
Digitaria didactyla |
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fingergrass, Henry's crabgrass, kukaepua'a, saulangi, smooth crabgrass, southern crab grass, tropical crabgrass |
blue couch, crabgrass |
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Habit | Plants annual or of indefinite duration. | Plants perennial; stoloniferous and rhizomatous, mat-forming. | ||||
Culms | 10-100 cm long, erect portion 30-60 cm, long-decumbent, rooting and branching at the decumbent nodes, sparingly branched or unbranched from the upper nodes; nodes 2-5, glabrous. |
15-40(63) cm, rooting and branching from the lower nodes. |
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Sheaths | with papillose-based hairs; ligules 2-3.5 mm, erose; blades 1.5-14.4(18.9) cm long, 3-9 mm wide, flat, glabrous, a few scattered papillose-based hairs at the base of the adaxial surfaces (occasionally over the whole adaxial surface), usually also scabrous on both surfaces. |
densely to sparsely hairy, with 3-5 mm papillose-based hairs; ligules 1-1.5 mm; blades 2.5-7 cm long, 1-3 mm wide, flat or folded, usually glabrous, green to bluish-green. |
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Panicles | with 2-10 spikelike primary branches, these digitate or in 1-3 whorls on rachises to 2 cm; lowest panicle nodes with hairs more than 0.4 mm; primary branches 3-24 cm long, 0.6-1.2(2) mm wide, glabrous or with less than 1 mm hairs, axes wing-margined, wings at least 1/2 as wide as the midribs, lower and middle portions of the branches bearing spikelets in unequally pedicellate pairs; secondary branches absent; shorter pedicels 0.5-1 mm; longer pedicels 1.5-4 mm. |
with 2-4 spikelike primary branches digitately arranged; primary branches 2-7 cm, axes wing-margined, wings at least 1/2 as wide as the midribs, spikelets somewhat imbricate, in unequally pedicellate pairs; secondary branches rarely present; pedicels not adnate to the branches; shorter pedicels 1-1.5 mm; longer pedicels 2-3 mm; axillary panicles not present. |
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Spikelets | (2.7)2.8-4.1 mm long, homomorphic. |
homomorphic, 2-2.8 mm long, about 0.8 mm wide. |
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Lower | glumes 0.2-0.8 mm, acute; upper glumes (1.2)1.5-2.7 mm, about 2/3 to almost as long as the spikelet, 3-veined, margins and apices pilose; lower lemmas 2.7-4.1 mm, 7-veined, veins unequally spaced, outer 3 veins crowded together near each margin, well-separated from the midvein, usually smooth, occasionally the lateral veins scabridulous on the distal 1/3 margins and regions between the 2 inner lateral veins hairy, hairs 0.5-1 mm (rarely glabrous), sometimes also with glassy yellow hairs between the 2 inner lateral veins, these more common on the upper spikelets; upper lemmas 2.5-4 mm, glabrous, yellow, tan, or gray when immature, becoming brown, often purple-tinged (occasionally completely purple) at maturity; anthers 0.6-1 mm. |
glumes to 0.3 mm, triangular; upper glumes from 1/2 - 3/4 as long as the spikelets, 3-veined, pilose on the margins and sometimes between the veins; upper lemmas equaling the spikelets, prominently 7-veined, veins equally spaced, margins and sometimes the intercostal regions pilose, hairs 0.3-0.5 mm; upper lemmas slightly shorter than the lower lemmas, almost smooth, gray, sometimes purple-tinged, at maturity. |
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2n | = 54. |
= unknown. |
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Digitaria ciliaris |
Digitaria didactyla |
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Distribution |
AL; AR; AZ; CA; CT; DE; FL; GA; IA; IL; IN; KS; KY; LA; MA; MD; MO; MS; NC; NE; NJ; NM; NY; OH; OK; PA; SC; TN; TX; UT; VA; HI; PR; Virgin Islands
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Discussion | Digitaria ciliaris is a weedy species, found in open, disturbed areas in most warm-temperate to tropical regions, primarily in the eastern United States. It is particularly abundant in the Southeast. So far as is known, the two varieties distinguished in the following key do not differ in any other characters. They are recognized here pending further study. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
A native of Africa, Digitaria didactyla is often cultivated as a lawn grass in tropical and subtropical regions. It has been grown experimentally in Florida, but is not otherwise known from the Flora region. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 25, p. 382. | FNA vol. 25, p. 376. | ||||
Parent taxa | Poaceae > subfam. Panicoideae > tribe Paniceae > Digitaria | Poaceae > subfam. Panicoideae > tribe Paniceae > Digitaria | ||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||
Name authority | (Retz.) Koeler | Willd. | ||||
Web links |