Digitaria Adscendens on:
[Wikipedia]
[Google]
[Amazon]
''Digitaria ciliaris'' is a species of grass known by the common names southern crabgrass,''Digitaria ciliaris''.
USDA Plants Profile. tropical finger-grass, tropical crabgrass or summer grass.
. The grass is known as "ගුරු තණ - guru thana" in
/ref>
Southern crabgrass PFAF
{{Taxonbar, from=Q8559911 ciliaris Grasses of Asia Grasses of India Flora of Sri Lanka Flora of Malta
''Digitaria ciliaris'' is a species of grass known by the common names southern crabgrass,''Digitaria ciliaris''.USDA Plants Profile. tropical finger-grass, tropical crabgrass or summer grass.
. The grass is known as "ගුරු තණ - guru thana" in
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...
.
Distribution
''Digitaria ciliaris'' is a tough plant, believed to have originated in Asia but now found all over thetropical belt
The tropics are the regions of Earth surrounding the Equator. They are defined in latitude by the Tropic of Cancer in the Northern Hemisphere at N and the Tropic of Capricorn in
the Southern Hemisphere at S. The tropics are also referred to ...
of the planet, as well as in many temperate regions of both hemispheres. This grass is an invasive species
An invasive species otherwise known as an alien is an introduced organism that becomes overpopulated and harms its new environment. Although most introduced species are neutral or beneficial with respect to other species, invasive species ad ...
considered an aggressive weed in certain countries, including China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
, Mexico and the United States.
Together with '' Portulaca oleracea'', '' Ipomoea pes-caprae'' and '' Melanthera biflora'', ''Digitaria ciliaris'' is usually one of the first species colonizing degraded or altered environments in tropical zones of the planet.
Description
This grass is anannual plant
An annual plant is a plant that completes its life cycle, from germination to the production of seeds, within one growing season, and then dies. The length of growing seasons and period in which they take place vary according to geographical ...
that can grow up to 1 m tall, but is usually much shorter. The roots are at the nodes and the stems produce runners
Running is a method of terrestrial locomotion allowing humans and other animals to move rapidly on foot. Running is a type of gait characterized by an aerial phase in which all feet are above the ground (though there are exceptions). This is ...
that allow the plant to grow fast forming scruffy-looking patches about 1 m across and half a metre in height. The leaves are linear to linear-ovate narrowing at the tip to 15 centimeters long. The inflorescence is at the top of a long stem, usually much taller than the leaves, with two to nine 5–10 cm long sub-digitate racemes.''Digitaria ciliaris'' - CABI/ref>
Forage Crop
Southern crabgrass, especially the cultivars Red River Crabgrass, 'Impact', and 'Quick-n-Big', have been utilized as a forage crop for livestock, as it is a highly nutritious warm season grass. Red river crabgrass responds well to nitrogen fertilizer, growing around 6 inches tall, and needs to be in rotation with cool-season forage.References
External links
*Southern crabgrass PFAF
{{Taxonbar, from=Q8559911 ciliaris Grasses of Asia Grasses of India Flora of Sri Lanka Flora of Malta