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sourgrass

isle-of-pines crabgrass

Habit Plants perennial; cespitose, shortly rhizomatous, with knotty bases. Plants of indefinite duration; not rhizomatous.
Culms

80-130 cm, erect, with densely villous cataphylls, branching from the lower and middle nodes.

80-120 cm, erect or decumbent and rooting at the lower nodes, not branching at the aerial nodes.

Sheaths

usually sparsely to densely papillose-hirsute, occasionally glabrous;

ligules 4-6 mm, usually lacerate, not ciliate;

blades 20-50 cm long, 10-17 mm wide, lax, smooth or scabridulous abaxially, scabridulous to scabrous adaxially.

hirsute, with papillose-based hairs, those of the innovation sheaths compressed-keeled;

ligules 1-2 mm;

blades 7-30 cm long, 3-5 mm wide, flat, pilose above and below.

Panicles

20-35 cm long, 2-10 cm wide, with numerous spikelike primary branches;

primary branches 10-15 cm, appressed to ascending at maturity, axes not wing-margined or with wings less than 1/2 as wide as the midribs;

internodes 3-4.5(6) mm (midbranch), bearing spikelets in unequally pedicellate pairs;

secondary branches rarely present;

pedicels not adnate to the branches;

shorter pedicels 0.7-2 mm;

longer pedicels 2.5-5 mm;

terminal pedicels 2-5 mm.

with 6-8 spikelike primary branches on 4-6 cm rachises;

primary branches 8-13 cm, axes triquetrous, narrowly winged, wings less than 1/2 as wide as the midribs, lower and middle portions of the branches bearing spikelets in appressed, unequally pedicellate pairs;

secondary branches rarely present;

axillary inflorescences not present;

pedicels not adnate to the branch axes.

Spikelets

5.5-8.2 mm (including pubescence), 4.2-5.9 mm (excluding pubescence), narrowly ovate, acuminate.

about 3 mm, elliptic lanceolate, acute.

Lower

glumes 0.6-0.8 mm;

upper glumes 3.5-4.5 mm, 3-5-veined, pubescent on the margins;

lower lemmas 4.1-5.7 mm (exceeded 1.5-5 mm by pubescence), narrowly ovate, 7-veined, pubescent between most, sometimes all, of the veins and on the margins, veins usually obscured by a dense covering of golden-brown hairs, hairs 3-6 mm, spreading at maturity, intercostal regions on either side of the midvein glabrous or pubescent with shorter, fine, white hairs, sometimes intermixed with the golden-brown hairs;

upper lemmas 3.2-4.5 mm, narrowly ovate, brown when immature, dark brown at maturity, acuminate;

anthers 1-1.2 mm.

glumes absent or minute and hyaline;

upper glumes 7-9-veined, glabrous or obscurely pubescent;

lower lemmas 7-9-veined, glabrous or obscurely pubescent;

upper lemmas elliptic, yellow or gray, becoming purple at maturity, slightly apiculate.

2n

= 36.

= unknown.

Digitaria insularis

Digitaria simpsonii

Distribution
from FNA
AL; AZ; FL; IL; MS; TX; HI; PR; Virgin Islands
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
from FNA
FL
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Digitaria insularis grows in low, open ground of the southern United States, and extends to the West Indies, Mexico, and through Central America to Argentina.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Digitaria simpsonii is a rare species, known only from sandy fields in Florida.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Source FNA vol. 25, p. 370. FNA vol. 25, p. 374.
Parent taxa Poaceae > subfam. Panicoideae > tribe Paniceae > Digitaria Poaceae > subfam. Panicoideae > tribe Paniceae > Digitaria
Sibling taxa
D. abyssinica, D. arenicola, D. bakeri, D. bicornis, D. californica, D. ciliaris, D. cognata, D. didactyla, D. eriantha, D. filiformis, D. floridana, D. gracillima, D. hitchcockii, D. horizontalis, D. ischaemum, D. leucocoma, D. longiflora, D. milanjiana, D. nuda, D. patens, D. pauciflora, D. pubiflora, D. sanguinalis, D. serotina, D. setigera, D. simpsonii, D. texana, D. tomentosa, D. velutina, D. violascens
D. abyssinica, D. arenicola, D. bakeri, D. bicornis, D. californica, D. ciliaris, D. cognata, D. didactyla, D. eriantha, D. filiformis, D. floridana, D. gracillima, D. hitchcockii, D. horizontalis, D. insularis, D. ischaemum, D. leucocoma, D. longiflora, D. milanjiana, D. nuda, D. patens, D. pauciflora, D. pubiflora, D. sanguinalis, D. serotina, D. setigera, D. texana, D. tomentosa, D. velutina, D. violascens
Synonyms Trichachne insularis
Name authority (L.) Mez ex Ekman (Vasey) Fernald
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