Compilation
Panicum pruriens

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Name

Identification
Digitaria setigera Roth [family POACEAE ] (stored under name); Verified by Jan Frederik Veldkamp, Digitaria setigera Roth [family POACEAE ] Verified by Whistler, A., Panicum pruriens Fisch. ex Trin. [family POACEAE ] Verified by Jan Frederik Veldkamp,
Related name
  • Panicum pruriens
  • Digitaria setigera

Flora

Entry for DIGITARIA setigera Roth [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 setigera Roth [family ], in Roem. & Schult., Syst. Veg. 2: 474 (1817). Type: India, Heyne (B, holo.)
Panicum pruriens Trin. [family POACEAE], Gram. Pan.: 77 (1826). Types: Wahu Is., Chamisso (K, isosyn.!) & Nucahiva Is., Langsdorff (LE, syn.)
Panicum microbachne Presl [family POACEAE], Rel. Haenk. 1: 298 (1830). Type:? Philippine Is., Haenke (PR, holo.)
Digitaria pruriens (Trin.) Büse [family ], in Miq., Pl. Jungh.: 379 (1854)
Digitaria microbachne (Presl) Henr. [family ], in Meded. Rijks Herb. 61: 13 (1930)
Information
Annual; culms 20–80 cm. high, geniculately ascending from a decumbent base. Leaf-blades broadly linear to lanceolate, 3–25 cm. long, 3–12 mm. wide. Inflorescence of 3–15 racemes arranged on a common axis 1–6 cm. long, or digitate in the smaller plants; racemes 4–15 cm. long, the spikelets binate and overlapping by ± 2/3 their length on a narrowly winged triquetrous rhachis, this sometimes bearing a few long glistening hairs. Spikelets lanceolate to elliptic-lanceolate, 2–3 mm. long; lower glume absent or very obscure; upper glume 1/8–1/4 as long as the spikelet, oblong or triangular, 0– to sub–3-nerved; lower lemma as long as the spikelet, 7-nerved, the nerves evenly spaced or with a wide central interspace, appressedly or silky pubescent, rarely with a ciliate frill, very rarely with stiff bristles; fruit lanceolate, grey to yellowish brown.
Range
DISTR. T3 Seychelles and Madagascar, through Asia to the Pacific Is.
Altitude range
200 m.
Distribution
TANZANIA Tanga District Magila, 2 Jan. 1971, Archbold 1337!
Notes
D. setigera merges into D. horizontalis Willd. The latter is widespread in tropical America and the west coast of Africa, but it also occurs on Madagascar, the Seychelles, and other islands of the Indian Ocean. D. horizontalis is best distinguished by the longer upper glume, which is 1/3–1/2 as long as the spikelet; other characters are the slightly more slender, somewhat flexuous racemes, and the presence of a tiny, but usually distinct, lower glume.True D. horizontalis does not seem to occur in East Africa, but the name has been widely misapplied to D. velutina, D. ciliaris and D. nuda, all of which have the upper glume (1/2–)2/3–4/5 as long as the spikelet.

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