Digitaria ciliaris |
Digitaria tomentosa |
|||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
fingergrass, Henry's crabgrass, kukaepua'a, saulangi, smooth crabgrass, southern crab grass, tropical crabgrass |
|
|||||
Habit | Plants annual or of indefinite duration. | Plants perennial; cespitose, 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. |
40-90 cm, erect, geniculate. |
||||
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. |
|||||
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, 10-18 cm, open; branches divergent; pedicels 0.4-3 mm, divergent, spikelets solitary. |
||||
Spikelets | (2.7)2.8-4.1 mm long, homomorphic. |
2-2.5 mm, elliptical, apiculate. |
||||
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. |
sheaths densely villous; upper sheaths with scattered papillose-based hairs; ligules 1.5-3 mm; blades 4-7(12) cm long, 3-5 mm wide, villous to nearly glabrous, usually sparsely hairy near the ligules.; lower glumes absent or to 0.2 mm; upper glumes absent or to 0.6 mm, veinless; lower lemmas as long as the spikelets, 5-veined, margins and intercostal regions more or less pubescent; upper lemmas minutely rugose, dark brown. |
||||
2n | = 54. |
= 36. |
||||
Digitaria ciliaris |
Digitaria tomentosa |
|||||
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
|
|||||
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 southern India and Ceylon, Digitaria tomentosa is a noxious weed that is not known to occur in the Flora region. It is included here to help ensure that any introduction is correctly identified. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
||||
Key |
|
|||||
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 | (J. Konig ex Rottler) Henrard | ||||
Web links |