Digitaria ciliaris (Retz.) Koeler

  • Authority

    Acevedo-Rodríguez, Pedro & collaborators. 1996. Flora of St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 78: 1-581.

  • Family

    Poaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Digitaria ciliaris (Retz.) Koeler

  • Description

    Species Description - Annual herb, lacking stolons; flowering culms 1-10 dm tall, decumbent at the base, sparingly branched. Leaf sheaths glabrous or hairy; ligule 1-4 mm long; blades linear, flat, 2-20 cm long, 3-10 mm wide, scabrous, glabrous on the upper surface (rarely with a few scattered hairs). Inflorescence obovate; main axis 14- 40 cm long; primary branches 4-24 cm long, distinctly winged. Spikelets paired, lanceolate, 2.7-3.7 X 0.7-1.1 mm; lower glume 0.35-0.7 mm long, nerveless; upper glume 1.2-2.7 mm long, 3- 5-nerved; lemma of lower floret lanceolate, 5-7-nerved, muticous, the palea absent; lemma of upper floret lanceolate, cartilaginous, striate, yellow (becoming purple), 2.6-3.8 mm long, muticous.

    Distribution and Ecology - Occasional weed of open disturbed areas. Herman Farm (Ml7087), Lameshur (W334). Found throughout the tropics and subtropics worldwide.

  • Discussion

    Panicum adscendens Kunth in Humb., Bonpl. & Kunth, Nov. Gen. Sp. PL 1: 97. 1816. Digitaria adscendens (Kunth) Henrard, Blumea 1: 92. 1934