Digitaria ciliaris (Retz.) Koeler
IUCN
NCBI
EOL Text
Flowering class: Monocot Habit: Herb
"Annuals. Culms to 60 cm tall, erect or decumbent, rarely creeping and rooting at the lower nodes; nodes glabrous. Leaves 3-8 x 0.3-1 cm, oblong-linear or linear-lanceolate, rounded or shallowly cordate at base, acuminate at apex, flat; sheaths slightly keeled, glabrous or pilose; ligules ovate or truncate, membranous. Racemes 3-7, digitate or subdigitate, to 15 cm long. Rhachis winged, serrate. Spikelets binate, 2.5-3.5 mm long, elliptic or elliptic-lanceolate. Lower glume 2-5 mm long, triangular. Upper glume 2-2.5 mm long, lanceolate, 3-nerved. Lower floret empty, epaleate. Upper floret bisexual. First lemma 2.5-3.5 x 0.5 mm, elliptic or elliptic-lanceolate, 7-nerved. Second lemma 2.5-3 x 1 mm, elliptic or elliptic-lanceolate, acuminate, crustaceous, brownish-yellow in fruit. Palea 2.5-3 x 1 mm, elliptic-lanceolate, subcoriaceous, 2-keeled, 2-nerved. Stamens 3; anthers c. 1 mm long. Ovary c. 1 mm long; stigmas c. 1 mm long, pink."
Rounded Global Status Rank: G5 - Secure
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United States
Origin: Unknown/Undetermined
Regularity: Regularly occurring
Currently: Unknown/Undetermined
Confidence: Confident
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Panicum ciliare Retz., Observ. Bot. 4: 16. 1786.
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| Rights holder/Author | eFloras.org Copyright © Missouri Botanical Garden |
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Digitaria ciliaris is a species of grass known by the common names southern crabgrass,[2] tropical crabgrass or summer grass.[3]
The grass is known as "ගුරු තණ - guru thana" in Sri Lanka.
Distribution[edit]
Digitaria ciliaris is a tough plant, believed to have originated in Asia but now found all over the tropical belt of the planet, as well as in many temperate regions of both hemispheres.[4] This grass is an invasive species considered an aggressive weed in certain countries, including China, Mexico and the United States.[4]
Together with Portulaca oleracea, Ipomoea pes-caprae and Melanthera biflora, Digitaria ciliaris is usually one of the first species colonizing degraded or altered environments in tropical zones of the planet.[5]
Description[edit]
This grass is as annual that can grow up to 1 m tall, but is usually much shorter. The roots are at the nodes and the stems produce runners that allow the plant to grow fast forming scruffy-looking patches about 1 m across and half a metre in height. The leaves are linear to linear-ovate narrowing at the tip to 15 centimeters long. The inflorescence is at the top of a long stem, usually much taller than the leaves, with two to nine 5-10 cm long sub-digitate racemes.[4]
References[edit]
- ^ "The Plant List: A Working List of All Plant Species". Retrieved 7 February 2015.
- ^ Digitaria ciliaris. USDA Plants Profile.
- ^ Digitaria ciliaris - Common Australian Garden Weeds.
- ^ a b c Digitaria ciliaris - CABI
- ^ Heatwole, H., Done, T., Cameron, E. Community Ecology of a Coral Cay, A Study of One-Tree Island, Great Barrier Reef, Australia. Series: Monographiae Biologicae, Vol. 43, p. 102
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| Rights holder/Author | Wikipedia |
| Source | http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Digitaria_ciliaris&oldid=645967408 |
"
Global Distribution
Paleotropics
Indian distribution
State - Kerala, District/s: All Districts
"
Syntherisma sericea Honda, Bot. Mag. (Tokyo) 38: 127. 1924.
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| Rights holder/Author | eFloras.org Copyright © Missouri Botanical Garden |
| Source | http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=1050&taxon_id=242412952 |
Paspalum sanguinale (Linn.) Lam. var. rottleri Hook.f. is typified by two sheets, Wight 3032 and Wight 3033, both at Kew. Of these, the former is Digitaria ciliaris and the latter Digitaria bicornis (Lam.) Loud. In the protologue to the variety, Hooker described the wings of the rhachis as being “two or three times broader than the midrib.” Since this character does not agree with Digitaria bicornis (including Wight 3033), the specimen Wight 3032 is selected as the lectotype of var. rottleri. This is included in the synomymy of Digitaria ciliaris because the spikelets are narrow and apparently lack the spiny protuberences on the nerves of the lemma.
Digitaria ciliaris is a polymorphic species showing at least four parallel series based on quite independent sources of variation. The rhachis may have long white hairs (rhachiseta) or not; in terms of indumentum the spikelets of a pair may be the same or different (biformis); the spikelets (independently in each pair) may be glabrous (nubica), long or short hairy (ciliaris, desvauxii) or conspicuously fringed (criniformis, fimbriata); one or both spikelets may be beset with stiff glassy bristles (chrysoblephara, willdenowii). None of these variants shows any indication of geographical segration, and since there are at least these four independent sources of variation the number of potential varieties is enormous, but none would be of any taxonomic significance. The sporadic occurence of the siliceous spines characteristic of Digitaria sanguinalis in spikelets otherwise typical of Digitaria ciliaris suggests that there may be some gene-flow between these two species in Pakistan.
Digitaria bicornis (Lam.) Loud. is often included in subsp. chrysoblephara (or vice versa, see Veldkamp 1973) by virtue of its possession of glassy bristles, but like Digitaria ciliaris it too shows several types of indumentum and quite frequently is perfectly glabrous (even to the exclusion of the glassy bristles). It is in fact a distinct species differing in a number of important characters. There are normally only 2, sometimes 3 racemes each with a slightly swollen base. The midrib is thick and the wings are usually extremely narrow. The pedicels are stout and straight and this, combined with the thick midrib, gives the spikelets the appearance of being sunk in the rhachis. The lower lemma is horny with much thickened, contiguous or closely spaced nerves. The first pair of interspaces, and the second where present, are reduced to deep V-shaped grooves. The lemma characters are best seen in the subsessile spikelets towards the base of the raceme. True Digitaria bicornis does not occur in Pakistan, being confined to the warmer parts of southern India, Sri Lanka and Burma.
Digitaria ciliaris is a widespread tropical weed.
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Nile region, oases, Res Sea coastal strip, Gebel Elba and Sinai.
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| Rights holder/Author | Bibliotheca Alexandrina, BA Cultnat, Bibliotheca Alexandrina - EOL Ar |
| Source | http://lifedesk.bibalex.org/ba/pages/2688 |