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Info
Subfamily: Chloridoideae
Genus etymology: Cynodon = "dog's tooth" [Greek] refering to the scales on the stolons
Species etymology: aethiopicus = "belonging to subsaharan Africa" [Latin] refering to its native range
Photosynthetic type: C4 (warm season)
Nativity: naturalized - intentional
First recorded in Hawaiʻi: 1962
Map
Specimen
Description
Coarse stoloniferous perennial without rhizomes; stolons stout, lying flat on the ground; culms very robust, 40–100 cm. high, 2–6 mm. in diameter at the base, hard, shining and woody. Leaf-blades flat, 3–25 cm. long, 3–7 mm. wide, stiff and harsh, glaucous, scaberulous, glabrous or with a few scattered hairs; ligule a scarious rim 0.3 mm. long. Racemes 5–17, 4–8 cm. long (typically 5–6 cm.), in 2–5 whorls (rarely 1), stiff and spreading. Spikelets 2.5–3 mm. long, strongly pigmented with red or purple; glumes narrowly lanceolate in side view, 1-nerved, the upper ± 3/4 as long as the spikelet; lemma weakly pubescent on the keel above; palea glabrous. Fig. 89, p. 320.
(Description source: Clayton, W.D. 1970. Flora of Tropical East Africa. Gramineae (Part 1). Crown Agents for Oversea Governments and Administrations, London. 176 pp. )
Coarse stoloniferous perennial without rhizomes; stolons stout; culms very robust, up to 130 cm tall, hard, shining and woody at the base, erect; leaf laminas 5–20 cm × 3–7 mm, flat.Racemes 6–17 in 2–5 (rarely 1) whorls, 6–11 cm long.Spikelets 2.4–2.8 mm long, strongly pigmented with red or purple; glumes narrowly lanceolate in profile, the superior c. 3/4 as long as the spikelet; lemma glabrous, thinly pubescent or occasionally pilose on the keel.
(Description source: Pope, G.V. (ed). 1999. Flora Zambesiaca. Volume 10. Part 2. Kew, London. 261 pp. )
Plants stoloniferous, not rhizomatous; stolons stout, woody, lying flat on the ground. Culms 25-100 cm tall, 2-6 mm thick, becoming woody. Sheaths glabrous; ligules about 0.3 mm, membranous, ciliolate; blades 3-25 cm long, 3-7 mm wide, glabrous or sparsely pubescent, glaucous. Panicles with 4-10(20) branches; branches 3.5-7 cm, in (1)2-5 whorls, stiff, usually red or purple, axes triquetrous. Spikelets 2-3 mm. Glumes equaling to slightly exceeding the florets; lower glumes 2-2.2 mm; upper glumes 1.7-2.6 mm; lemmas 2.1-2.6 mm, keels not winged, glabrous or with a few scattered hairs. 2n =18, 36.
(Description source: Barkworth, M.E., Capels, K.M., Long, S. & Piep, M.B. (eds.) 2003. Flora of North America, north of Mexico. Volume 25. Magnoliophyta: Commelinidae (in part): Poaceae, Part 2. Oxford University Press, New York. 783 pp. http://floranorthamerica.org/Cynodon_aethiopicus )