Digitaria ciliaris |
Digitaria pubiflora |
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fingergrass, Henry's crabgrass, kukaepua'a, saulangi, smooth crabgrass, southern crab grass, tropical crabgrass |
Carolina crabgrass, western witchgrass |
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Habit | Plants annual or of indefinite duration. | Plants perennial; cespitose, with or without rhizomes. | ||||
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. |
20-70 cm, erect; nodes glabrous or pubescent. |
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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. |
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Leaves | mainly cauline; sheaths glabrous or sparsely to densely pubescent, sometimes with papillose-based hairs; ligules 0.5-2.2 mm, entire to lacerate; blades 1.3-7.7 cm long, 1.5-4.7 mm wide, glabrous or sparsely to densely pubescent. |
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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. |
simple, 4.5-20 cm long, 5.5-31 cm wide, open; branches divergent; lower primary branches 3.6-17.7 cm, often with 1-several sterile branches near the base; pedicels divergent, spikelets solitary. |
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Spikelets | (2.7)2.8-4.1 mm long, homomorphic. |
2.3-3.3 mm long, 0.6-1 mm wide, narrowly elliptic. |
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Caryopses | 1.3-1.6 mm. |
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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 0.1-0.4 mm; upper glumes 1.8-2.9 mm, 3-veined, densely pubescent between the veins, hairs white, becoming purple at maturity; lower lemmas similar to the upper glumes in length, texture, and pubescence, 5-veined, veins equidistant; upper lemmas 1.9-2.6 mm, glabrous, dark brown, narrowly acute; anthers 0.3-0.5 mm, yellow, red, or purple. |
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2n | = 54. |
= (36), 72. |
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Digitaria ciliaris |
Digitaria pubiflora |
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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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AZ; CO; NM; OK; TX |
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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 pubiflora grows in dry, sandy or rocky soils from Arizona to central Texas and south to central Mexico. (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. 362. | ||||
Parent taxa | Poaceae > subfam. Panicoideae > tribe Paniceae > Digitaria | Poaceae > subfam. Panicoideae > tribe Paniceae > Digitaria | ||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||
Name authority | (Retz.) Koeler | (Vasey) Wipff | ||||
Web links |