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Info
Subfamily: Panicoideae
Genus etymology: Digitaria = "having fingers" [Latin] refering to the inflorescence structure
Species etymology: mollicoma = "soft hairs" [Latin] refering to soft hairs often present on the sheaths and leaves
Photosynthetic type: C4 (warm season)
Nativity: naturalized - accidental
First recorded in Hawaiʻi: 2022
Map
Inflorescence
Plant
Spikelets
Collar
Description
Annual or perennial. Culms decumbent and creeping, 30–40 cm high; nodes pilose. Sheaths 1.2–3 cm long, densely pilose. Ligules 1–1.2 mm long. Blades linear to lanceolate, 2–5.5 cm by 3–5 mm, chartaceous, both surfaces densely pilose, apex acute. Inflorescences composed of racemes; peduncles glabrous; common axis absent. Racemes 2–3, longest 5–7.5 cm long, digitate; rachis ribbon-like, winged, margins serrulate, 0.7–0.8 mm wide. Pedicels terete to trigonous, glabrous; abscission discoid to cupuliform. Spikelets ternate, homomorphous, lanceolate, 2.1–2.3 long, apex acute; hairs smooth or verrucose with acute apex. Lower glume 0.1–0.2 mm long, membranous. Upper glume elliptic to slightly lanceolate, 1.9–2 mm long, chartaceous, apex acute, pubescent between nerves but with glabrous interspaces beside the midnerve or pubescent only on the margins, nerves 3. Lower lemma lanceolate, as long as the spikelet, chartaceous, apex acute, pubescent with glabrous interspaces beside the midnerve or pubescent only on the margins, nerves 7, equidistant. Upper lemma lanceolate, 2–2.1 mm long, coriaceous, apex acute or apiculate, yellowish. Anthers 0.6–0.8 mm long, yellowish. Caryopsis ellipsoid, 0.9–1 mm long, yellowish.
(Description source: Boonsuk, B., Chantaranothai, P. & Hodkinson, T.R. 2016. A taxonomic revision of the genus Digitaria (Panicoideae: Poaceae) in mainland Southeast Asia. Phytotaxa 246(4): 248–280. )