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Info
Subfamily: Panicoideae
Genus etymology: Digitaria = "having fingers" [Latin] refering to the inflorescence structure
Species etymology: abyssinica = from Abyssinia, now Ethiopia
Photosynthetic type: C4 (warm season)
Nativity: naturalized - accidental
First recorded in Hawaiʻi: 1979
Map
Inflorescence
Habit
Spikelets
Node
Collar
Description
A loosely caespitose perennial on a short, slender rhizome. Culms 20–40 cm., erect from a creeping or decumbent base, glabrous, nodes dark, glabrous. Leaf sheaths loosely to densely hairy from minute tubercles. Ligule 1–2 mm. long, obtuse to truncate. Leaf laminae 4–8 × 0.5–1.2 cm., linear-lanceolate, flat, sometimes scaberulous on both surfaces, with scattered bulbous based bristles, scabrous along the crisped margin. Inflorescence composed of 6–12 racemes, 4–9 cm. long, ascendent-patent, solitary along a well developed common axis. Rhachis triquetrous, scarcely winged, up to 0.4 mm. broad, smooth, with scabrous margins. Pedicels 2-nate, 1–3 mm. long, triangular to compressed, scabrous, not or scarcely broadened at the apex. Spikelets 1.8–2.1 mm. long, oblong-ovate, inflated. Inferior glume c.1/4 of the spikelet, regularly triangular to rounded triangular, nerveless, glabrous, hyaline or purplish. Superior glume c.4/5 the spikelet, oblong-ovate, 3(5)-nerved, glabrous or rarely minutely pubescent, pale green, sometimes purplish tinged. Inferior lemma as long as the spikelet, oblong-ovate with recurved margins, equidistantly 7-nerved, glabrous or rarely minutely pubescent, pale green or purplish tinged. Superior lemma as long as the spikelet, oblong-ovate, apiculate, pale to bluish green, inflated.
(Description source: Launert, E. & Pope, G.V. (eds.). 1989. Flora Zambesiaca. Volume 10. Part 3. Kew, London. 152 pp. )