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Info
Subfamily: Panicoideae
Genus etymology: Digitaria = "having fingers" [Latin] refering to the inflorescence structure
Species etymology: stricta = "erect" [Latin] refering to the inflorescence branches
Photosynthetic type: C4 (warm season)
Nativity: naturalized - accidental
First recorded in Hawaiʻi: 2003
Map
Inflorescence
Plant
Spikelets
Description
Annual. Culms tufted, slender, erect, 20–40 cm tall. Leaf sheaths loose, keeled, glabrous or papillose-pilose, especially at mouth; leaf blades linear, soft, 5–20 × 0.3–0.5 cm, adaxial surface tuberculate-hispid in lower 1/3, apex finely acuminate; ligule 1–1.5 mm. Inflorescence subdigitate, axis 1–3 cm; racemes 2–8 or more, 5–12 cm; spikelets ternate; rachis triquetrous, narrowly winged, margins scabrous; pedicels scabrous, tips slightly dilated with overtopping spicules up to 1 mm. Spikelets elliptic, 1.2–1.4 mm, hairs clavate, rarely glabrous; lower glume absent; upper glume variable, 1/4–1/2 as long as spikelet, rarely vestigial or absent, veinless or 1–3-veined; lower lemma slightly shorter than spikelet, 3–5-veined, intervein spaces and margins sparsely pubescent to villous; upper lemma chestnut brown to purplish black with a paler, apiculate, slightly protruding apex. Anthers ca. 0.3 mm. Fl. and fr. autumn.
(Description source: Wu, Z.Y., Raven, P.H. & Hong, D.Y. (eds.). 2006. Flora of China. Volume 22. Poaceae. Missouri Botanical Garden Press, St. Louis. 733 pp. )