Compilation
Digitaria arushae

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Name

Identification
Isotype of Digitaria arushae Clayton [family POACEAE ] (stored under name); Verified by Not on sheet,
Related name
  • Digitaria perrottetii
  • Digitaria diagonalis
  • Digitaria arushae

Flora

Entry for DIGITARIA arushae W.D. Clayton [family ]
Herbarium
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (K)
Collection
Flora of Tropical East Africa
Resource Type
Reference Sources
Entry From
Flora of Tropical East Africa, page 451, (1982) Author: W. D. CLAYTON and S.A. RENVOIZE
Names
DIGITARIA arushae W.D. Clayton [family ], in K.B. 29: 518 (1974). Type: Tanzania, Arusha District, Ngurdoto National Park, Greenway & Kanuri 12283 (K, holo.!)
Information
Perennial with a knotty rootstock clad in tomentose scales; culms 50–100 cm. high, hard, almost cane-like, geniculately ascending. Leaf-blades broadly linear to narrowly lanceolate, 3–15 cm. long, 3–9 mm. wide. Inflorescence lanceolate, 8–20 cm. long, of numerous short spreading racemes arranged in untidy whorls on a long central axis; racemes 2–6 cm. long, the spikelets paired on a triquetrous rhachis sparsely adorned (especially towards the base) with long glistening hairs. Spikelets narrowly elliptic, 1.8–2.2 mm. long; lower glume absent; upper glume 3/4–4/5 as long as the spikelet, 3-nerved, pubescent; lower lemma as long as the spikelet, 7-nerved, appressedly pubescent; fruit ellipsoid, light brown.
Range
DISTR. K4; T1, 2
Altitude range
1000–2000 m.
Distribution
KENYA Nairobi District 64 km. S.E. of Nairobi, 16 June 1952, Bogdan 3462!TANZANIA Arusha District Engare Nanyuki, 7 Dec. 1966, Richards 21663! & Mt. Meru, 16 Apr. 1967, Vesey-FitzGerald 5181! & Arusha National Park, 30 May 1968, Renvoize & Abdallah 2471!
Distribution (external)
Ethiopia
Notes
Closely resembles the strictly annual species D. perrottetii. It may be distinguished from D. rukwae by the absence of creeping rhizomes and lower glume; from D. rivae by the whorled inflorescence, occasional long rhachis-hairs, and shorter spikelet-indumentum.

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