Digitaria ciliaris |
Digitaria serotina |
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fingergrass, Henry's crabgrass, kukaepua'a, saulangi, smooth crabgrass, southern crab grass, tropical crabgrass |
blanket crabgrass, dwarf crabgrass |
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Habit | Plants annual or of indefinite duration. | Plants annual; often 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. |
10-30 cm, decumbent and rooting at 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. |
conspicuously and densely hairy, longer hairs 1.5-2.5 mm, papillose-based, shorter hairs about 0.5 mm, not papillose-based; ligules 1.5-2.5 mm; blades 2-9 cm long, 3-8 mm wide, conspicuously hairy on both surfaces, longer hairs 1.5-2.5 mm, papillose-based, shorter hairs about 0.5 mm, not papillose-based. |
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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 2-9 spikelike primary branches, digitate or on rachises to 4 cm; primary branch axes 3-10 cm, wing-margined, wings wider than the midribs, lower and middle portions bearing spikelets in groups of 3; secondary branches rarely present; shortest pedicels 0.5-0.8 mm; midlength pedicels 1.5-2 mm; longest pedicels 3-3.5 mm, adnate to the branch axes basally. |
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Spikelets | (2.7)2.8-4.1 mm long, homomorphic. |
homomorphic, 1.5-1.8 mm, lanceolate. |
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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 1/6-1/3 as long as the spikelets, margins and apices with appressed white hairs, hairs about 0.3 mm; lower lemmas 7-veined, veins equally spaced, appressed-pubescent between the inner lateral veins and on the margins, hairs 0.3-0.5 mm, minutely verrucose (use 50x magnification); upper lemmas yellow or tan at maturity. |
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2n | = 54. |
- unknown. |
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Digitaria ciliaris |
Digitaria serotina |
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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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AL; DE; FL; GA; LA; MS; NC; PA; SC; VA
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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 serotina is native to the coastal plain of the southeastern United States. It has also been found in Cuba, possibly as an introduction, and on a ballast dump in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Its densely hairy sheath and short, densely hairy blades make this one of the more distinctive species of Digitaria in 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. 370. | ||||
Parent taxa | Poaceae > subfam. Panicoideae > tribe Paniceae > Digitaria | Poaceae > subfam. Panicoideae > tribe Paniceae > Digitaria | ||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||
Name authority | (Retz.) Koeler | (Walter) Michx. | ||||
Web links |