毛花雀稗 mao hua que bai

Digitaria dilatata (Poiret) H. J. Coste.

Perennial from a short rhizome. Culms forming a coarse, spreading tuft, 50–150 cm tall, ca. 5 mm in diam., glabrous. Leaf sheaths glabrous or pilose in the lower part; leaf blades linear, 10–45 × 0.3–1.2 cm, glabrous, apex attenuate; ligule 2–4 mm. Inflorescence axis 2–20 cm; racemes 2–10, 5–12 cm, spaced, diverging, axils pilose; spikelets paired; rachis 1–1.5 mm wide, glabrous. Spikelets green or purplish, broadly ovate, 3–4 mm, sharply acute; upper glume membranous, 5–9-veined, sparsely pubescent to almost glabrous on back, margins fringed with long white hairs; lower lemma similar but not hairy; upper lemma pallid at maturity, orbicular, ca. 2 mm, clearly shorter than spikelet, papillose-striate, apex rounded. Fl. and fr. May–Jul. 2n = 40, 50–63.

Roadsides, waste places, naturalized. Fujian, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hong Kong, Hubei, Shanghai, Taiwan, Yunnan, Zhejiang [native to South America].

This native of South America is now widely distributed throughout the tropics as a forage grass and also occurs as a weed of cultivation.