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Info
Subfamily: Chloridoideae
Genus etymology: Sporobolus = "seed thrower" referring to the seed being ejected from the pericarp
Species etymology: indicus = refering to the West Indies (Carribean)
Photosynthetic type: C4 (warm season)
Nativity: naturalized - intentional
First recorded in Hawaiʻi: 1912
Map
Inflorescence
Plant
Spikelets
Description
Plants perennial; cespitose, with tough fibrous roots, not rhizomatous. Culms 30-100 (120) cm. Sheaths usually keeled below, glabrous; ligules 0.2-0.5 mm; blades (6)10-30(50) cm long, 1-5 mm wide, flat, glabrous on both surfaces. Panicles 20-35(50) cm long, 0.3-2.2(3) cm wide, contracted, narrow, sometimes included in the uppermost sheath; primary branches 0.4-2.5(5) cm, appressed or spreading to 40° from the rachis, as long or longer than the adjacent internodes; secondary branches appressed, spikelet-bearing to near the base; pulvini glabrous; pedicels 0.1-1.8 mm, appressed. Spikelets 2-2.6(2.7) mm, plumbeous to light brownish. Glumes subequal, ovate or obovate, membranous; lower glumes 0.5-1 mm, often without midveins; upper glumes 0.8-1.6 mm, 1/2 - 2/3 as long as the florets, acute to obtuse, entire; lemmas 1.8-2.6(2.7) mm, ovate, membranous, glabrous, acute or obtuse; paleas 1.9-2.4 mm, ovate, membranous, glabrous; anthers 3, 0.5-1.1 mm, white, sometimes purple-tinged. Fruits 1-1.2 mm, quadrangular, laterally compressed, reddish-brown, truncate. 2n = 18, 24, 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/Sporobolus_indicus )