Urochloa maxima (Jacq.) R.D.Webster

  • 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

    Urochloa maxima (Jacq.) R.D.Webster

  • Description

    Species Description - Perennial herb, stoloniferous or lacking stolons; flowering culms 6-20 dm tall, erect or decumbent at the base, sparingly branched. Leaf sheaths glabrous or hairy; ligule 1-3 mm long; blades linear, flat, 15-60 x 1-3 cm, smooth, glabrous, or hairy on the upper surface. Inflorescence obovate; main axis 20-60 cm long; primary branches 12-35 cm long, with spreading secondary branches. Spikelets solitary or paired, oblong, 2.7-3.5 x 0.9-1.1 mm; lower glumes 0.8-1.1 mm long, 1-3-nerved; upper glumes 2.1-3.5 mm long, 5-nerved; lemma of lower floret oblong, 5-nerved, muticous or mucronate, the palea fully developed; lemma of upper floret elliptic, indurate, rugose, yellow, 1.9-2.4 mm long, mucronate.

  • Discussion

    Common name: guinea grass.

    Cultivated species: Cymbopogon citratus (DC.) Stapf, commonly known as lemon grass, was reported by Woodbury and Weaver (1987) as occurring on St. John; the species, however, is known only in cultivation

  • Distribution

    An occasional weed. Fish Bay (A3887), Lameshur (W845). Also on St. Croix and St. Thomas; originally native to Africa, widely introduced and naturalized in the tropics and subtropics for pasture improvement.

    Saint Croix Virgin Islands of the United States South America| Saint Thomas Virgin Islands of the United States South America| Africa|