Melinis repens (Willd.) Zizka
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Authority
Acevedo-Rodríguez, Pedro & collaborators. 1996. Flora of St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 78: 1-581.
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Family
Poaceae
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Scientific Name
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Description
Species Description - Annual or perennial herb, lacking stolons; flowering culms 3- 10 dm tall, erect or decumbent at the base, sparingly branched. Leaf sheaths glabrous; ligule 0.5-1.4 mm long; blades linear, flat, 3-20 x 0.3-0.6 cm, smooth, glabrous on the upper surface. Inflorescence lanceolate to ovate; main axis 8-17 cm long; primary branches 2.5-6 cm long. Spikelets solitary, ovate to elliptic, 3.2- 5.5 x 1.2-1.9 mm , covered with reddish to less commonly gray silky hairs; lower glumes 0.3-1.5 mm long, 0-1-nerved; upper glumes 3-5.3 mm long, 5-nerved; lemma of lower floret lanceolate to ovate, 5-nerved, muticous or awned, the palea fully developed; lemma of upper floret elliptic, chartaceous, smooth, white, 2-2.4 mm long, muticous.
Distribution and Ecology - A common roadside weed. Annaberg (W853), Peter Peak (A4106). Also on St. Thomas; widely introduced throughout the West Indies and warm to temperate North America; native to Africa
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Discussion
Tricholaena rosea Nees, Cat. Sem. Hort. Vratisl. 1836 [1835]