Digitaria ciliaris |
Digitaria gracillima |
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fingergrass, Henry's crabgrass, kukaepua'a, saulangi, smooth crabgrass, southern crab grass, tropical crabgrass |
longleaf crabgrass |
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Habit | Plants annual or of indefinite duration. | Plants perennial; in dense tufts, not rhizomatous. | ||||
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. |
60-100 cm, erect. |
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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. |
villous, particularly the lower sheaths; ligules 0.2-0.4, fimbriate; blades to 47 cm long, 1-2.1 mm wide, involute, glabrous and smooth abaxially, scabrous adaxially, sometimes with a few long hairs near the base. |
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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. |
of 2-3(5) spikelike primary branches on elongate rachises; primary branches 8-13(20) cm, narrowly winged, wings no more than 1/2 as wide as the midribs, bearing spikelets in unequally pedicellate groups of 3-4(5); secondary branches rarely present; longest pedicels to 5 mm. |
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Spikelets | (2.7)2.8-4.1 mm long, homomorphic. |
1.7-2.3 mm, elliptical, glabrous. |
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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 absent; upper glumes 0.9-1 mm, less than 1/2 as long as the spikelets, 3-veined, glabrous, broadly rounded to truncate; lower lemmas slightly shorter than the spikelets, 5-veined, glabrous; upper lemmas smooth, brown when immature, dark brown at maturity. |
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2n | = 54. |
= unknown. |
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Digitaria ciliaris |
Digitaria gracillima |
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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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FL |
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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.) |
Digitaria gracillima is a rare species, endemic to scrub and dry pinelands of peninsular Florida. It was formerly interpreted as including D. bakeri, but differs from that species both morphologically and ecologically. (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. 364. | ||||
Parent taxa | Poaceae > subfam. Panicoideae > tribe Paniceae > Digitaria | Poaceae > subfam. Panicoideae > tribe Paniceae > Digitaria | ||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||
Name authority | (Retz.) Koeler | (Scribn.) Fernald | ||||
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