Compilation
Cynosurus aegyptius

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Name

Identification
Cynosurus aegyptius L. [family POACEAE ] (stored under name); Dactyloctenium aegyptium (L.) Willd. [family POACEAE ] Verified by J.E. Dandy, Cynosurus aegyptiacus Forssk. [family POACEAE ] Verified by Daniel Carl Solander,
Related name
  • Dactyloctenium aristatum
  • Dactyloctenium aegyptiacum
  • Cynosurus aegyptiacus
  • Dactyloctenium aegyptium
  • Cynosurus aegyptius
  • Eleusine aegyptiaca

Flora

Entry for DACTYLOCTENIUM aegyptium (L.) Willd. [family POACEAE]
Herbarium
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (K)
Collection
Flora of Tropical East Africa
Resource Type
Reference Sources
Entry From
Flora of Tropical East Africa, Part (Part 2), page 177, (1974) Author: W. D. CLAYTON, S. M. PHILLIPS AND S. A. RENVOIZE
Names
DACTYLOCTENIUM aegyptium (L.) Willd. [family POACEAE], ,Enum. Hort. Berol.: 1029 (1809), as “ aegyptiacum ”; E.A. Pasture Plants 2: 52 (1927); Ann. list grasses Ug.: 13 (1947); Imp. grassl. pl. Kenya: 35 (1951); F.P.N.A. 3: 170 (1955); F.P.S. 3: 427 (1956); Ann. list Nyasaland grasses: 34 (1958); R.K.G.: 23 (1958); I.G.U.: 24 (1960); G.T.: 39 (1965); Clayton in E.W.T.A., ed. 2, 3: 395(1972). Type: Egypt (description in Bauhin, Pinax: 7 (1623), Theatr.: 110 (1658)) & India (illustration in Pluk. Alm. 175, t.300/8 (1696))
Cynosurus aegyptius L. [family POACEAE], Sp. Pl.: 72 (1753)
Eleusine aegyptia (L.) Desf. [family POACEAE], Fl. Atlant. 1: 85 (1798); Roxb., Fl. Ind. 1: 345 (1820), as “ aegyptica ”
Chloris mucronata Michx. [family POACEAE], Fl. Bor.-Amer. 1: 59 (1803). Type: U.S.A., Carolina, Michaux (P, holo., K, microfiche !)
Dactyloctenium mucronatum (Michx.) Willd. [family POACEAE], Enum. Hort. Berol.: 1029 (1809)
Dactyloctenium figarei De Not. [family POACEAE], in Ann. Sci. Nat., sér. 3, 9: 325 (1848). Type: Egypt, Figari (GE, holo. †, FI, iso.!)
Dactyloctenium aegyptium (Michx.) Schweinf. var. mucronatum [family POACEAE], in Bull. Herb. Boiss. 2, App. 2: 34 (1894); Th. Dur. & Schinz, Consp. Fl. Afr. 5: 868 (1895)
Cynosurus ciliaris Hook. f. [family POACEAE], Fl. Brit. Ind. 7: 296 (1896), nom. prov. Based on India, Rottler (K!)
Dactyloctenium mpuetensis De Wild. [family POACEAE], Miss. Laurent 1: 206 (1906). Type: Zaire, Katanga, Pweto, without collector (BR, holo. !)
Dactyloctenium ciliare Chiov. [family POACEAE], Fl. Somala 1: 337 (1929) & 2: 455 (1932), nom. nud. Based on Cynosurus ciliaris Hook. f.
Information
Slender to moderately robust spreading annual; culms up to 70(–100) cm. high, usually geniculately ascending and rooting at the lower nodes, frequently shortly stoloniferous and mat-forming, less often erect. Leaf-blades flat, 3–25 cm. long, 2.5–7.5(–12) mm. wide, papillose-hispid especially along the margins. Inflorescence composed of (1–)3–9 linear to narrowly oblong spikes 1.2–6.5 cm. long, ascending or often radiating horizontally from the top of the culm. Spikelets 3–4-flowered, broadly ovate, 3.5–4.5 mm. long; glumes subequal, 1.5–2.2 mm. long, the lower lanceolate in profile with a thick scabrid keel, the upper elliptic to narrowly obovate in profile, the smooth keel extended into a stout divergent scabrid awn 1/2–2 times as long as the glume; lemmas narrowly ovate to ovate in profile, 2.6–4 mm. long, the keel gibbous, concave and scabrid above the middle and often extended into a stout cusp or mucro up to 1 mm. long; palea-keels winged or unwinged; anthers 0.25–0.8 mm. long. Grain ± 1 mm. long, broadly obovate to obtriangular in profile, transversely rugose.
Range
DISTR. U1–4; K1–7; T1–8; Z; P throughout Africa; widely distributed in tropical and warm temperate regions of the Old World, introduced into America
Altitude range
sea-level to 2100 m.
Distribution
KENYA Northern Frontier Province Moyale, 4 Nov. 1952, Gillett 14140 !KENYA Turkana District Kacheliba, 7 Oct. 1964, Leippert 5050 !KENYA Nairobi District Nairobi-Magadi road, 26 June 1952, Bogdan 3485 !TANZANIA Ngara District Bushubi, 15 May 1960, Tanner 4978 !TANZANIA Arusha District Small Momella Lake, 27 Apr. 1968, Greenway & Kanuri 13525!TANZANIA Buha District Kakombe valley, 30 Dec. 1963, Pirozynski 126 !TANZANIA Zanzibar I. Marahubi, 3 Aug. 1950, Barney 1054 !TANZANIA Pemba I. Chake Chake, June-July 1928, Vaughan 260 !UGANDA Karamoja District near Nabilatuk, 13 July 1956, Dyson-Hudson 32 !UGANDA Teso District near Serere Agricultural Research Station, 15 Nov. 1968, Lye 341 !UGANDA Mengo District Nakasongola, 4 July 1956, Longdate-Brown 2158 !
Notes
An exceedingly variable pantropical annual weed, typically with sprawling, geniculately ascending culms and linear spikes radiating in a star-like manner from the culm-tip, but including also taller erect plants very similar to D. giganteum (e.g. Pielou 64), and plants with compact oblong spikes, occasionally very similar to those of D. aristatum (e.g. Bogdan 4799). It is most easily separated from D. giganteum by its small anthers and from the other annual species by its rugose grain.

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