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 aristatum Link [family POACEAE], ,Hort. Reg. Bot. Berol. 1: 59 (1827); Chiov., Fl. Somala 1: 337 (1929); F.P.S. 3: 427 (1956). Type: Egypt, Ehrenberg (whereabouts uncertain, ?B)
DACTYLOCTENIUM seminipunctatum Courb. [family POACEAE], in Ann. Sci. Nat., sér. 4, 18: 135 (1862). Type: Ethiopia, Eritrea, Dissei I., Courbon (P, holo.!)
DACTYLOCTENIUM glaucophyllum Mattei var. villosum [family POACEAE], in Boll. Ort. Bot. Palermo 7: 168 (1908). Type: Somali Republic (S.), Mogadishu, Macaluso 75 (PAL, holo.)
DACTYLOCTENIUM radulans [family POACEAE], [sensu Chiov., Fl. Somala 2: 455 (1932), non (R. Br.) P. Beauv.]
DACTYLOCTENIUM aegyptium (Link) A. Chev. var. aristatum [family POACEAE], in Rev. Bot. Appliq. 14: 130 (1934)
Distribution
KENYA Lamu District Takwa, 30 Oct. 1957, Greenway 9263 ! & Kui I., Sept. 1956, Rawlins 121 ! & Kiunga Is., Bomani I., 20 Aug. 1961, Gillespie 238 !
Notes
Best distinguished from both D. aegyptium and D. ctenioides by its short broad spikes clustered together in a compact head, and the conspicuously pointed lemmas which give the inflorescence a “spiky” appearance. Northern Kenya represents the southern extreme of its distributional range, and some specimens (e.g. Gillespie 208) are rather atypical, with a more robust stoloniferous habit and longer narrower spikes than usual, perhaps due to introgression with coastal forms of D. aegyptium.