| Home | > | List of families | > | Poaceae | > | Digitaria | > | gayana |
| Synonyms: |
Digitaria elegantula Mez Panicum didymostachyum Steud. Panicum gayanum Kunth |
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| Description: |
A loosely caespitose or solitary growing annual. Culms 15–40 cm., erect, glabrous, nodes dark and glabrous. Leaf sheaths scaberulous, loosely to densely hairy. Ligule 0.5–1 mm. long, rim-like, ciliate. Leaf laminae 3–7 × 0.4–0.8 cm., linear, flat, scaberulous on both surfaces, margins scaberulous, sometimes with scattered bulbous based bristles. Inflorescence composed of 2(3) racemes, 6–13 cm. long, erect, one subsessile, the other(s) pedicellate. Rhachis triquetrous, broadly winged, up to 1.4 mm. broad, smooth to minutely scaberulous, with scabrous margins. Pedicels 3–4-nate, 0.5–4.0 mm. long, subterete, smooth or scaberulous, asymmetrically broadened at the apex. Spikelets 2.5–2.7 mm. long, oblong, basally adaxially gibbous. Inferior glume short, hyaline, soon withering. Superior glume somewhat shorter than the spikelet, narrowly triangular, 3-nerved, appressed hairy, hairs white to purplish, smooth, acute. Inferior lemma as long as the spikelet, oblong with recurved margins, centrally deeply sulcate, margins inflated, 5-nerved, the central nerve poorly developed, hairs in two basal bundles and along the inflated margins with a loosely papillose wall and swollen base, the other, marginal hairs somewhat slenderer, overtopping the spikelet for 2–3 mm. Superior lemma somewhat shorter than the spikelet, oblong, acuminate, basally gibbous, keeled, pale yellow to very pale brown. |
| Notes: | |
| Derivation of specific name: | gayana: after Claude Gay, 1800-1873, French natural historian. |
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| Worldwide distribution: | From Senegal to Sudan, south to Namibia and Zimbabwe, Botswana, Zambia |
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| Spot characters: | Display spot characters for this species |
| Literature: |
Clayton, W.D. (1989). Poaceae Flora Zambesiaca 10(3) Pages 154 - 155. (Includes a picture). Mapaura, A. & Timberlake, J. (eds) (2004). A checklist of Zimbabwean vascular plants Southern African Botanical Diversity Network Report No. 33 Sabonet, Pretoria and Harare Page 102. Setshogo, M.P. (2005). Preliminary checklist of the plants of Botswana. Sabonet Report no. 37. Sabonet, Pretoria and Gaborone Page 134. |
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