prostrate to erect, decumbent or ascending. Culms solid or hollow. Auricles absent. Ligule a ciliolate membrane or a rim of hairs. Sheath keeled with scabrous margins.
Blades linear to linear-lanceolate and finely tapered to pungent. Plants bisexual. Inflorescence several spreading spikes all near together at or paired or near the top of
the culm; digitate racemes each terminating in a bare point; primary branches digitate reflexed or spreading. Spikelets solitary and laterally compressed; terminal floret
barren. Glumes 2, more or less equal and strongly keeled. Lower glume persistent and ovate. Upper glume more or less persistent and mucronate or short-awned below the
tip; strongly keeled lemmas acute or acuminate to shortly awned. Palea 2-keeled. Lodicule 2 fleshy truncate. Stamen 3. Ovary glabrous. Stigma 2. Caryopsis small,
sculptured or rugose. Shade tolerant, sand binder, soil stabilizer, fruits edible, rhizomes chewed like
sugarcane, lawns and playing fields, weed species, cultivated fodder, native pasture species, common in open habitats, arid and semiarid places, saline habitats, dunes, on
dry sandy soils, rainforest, reputed to contain cyanogenic glucosides.
25.1. Dactyloctenium aegyptium L. Willd. Pl. Eur. 1:68. 1870.
Aegilops saccharinum Walter. Fl. Carol. 249. 1788. Chloris mucronata Michx. Fl. Bor.-Amer. 1: 59. 1803.
Cynosurus aegyptius L., Sp. Pl. 1: 72. 1753. Cynosurus carolinianus Willd. ex Steud. Nomencl. Bot. ed.2 1: 465. 1840.
Dactyloctenium distachyum Trin. Fund. Agrost. 140. 1820. Dactyloctenium meridionale Hamilt. Prodr. Pl. Ind. Occid. 6. 1825.
Dactyloctenium mucronatum Michx. Willd. Enum. Pl. : 1029. 1809. Eleusine pectinata Moench. Methodus 68. 1802.
Rabdochloa mucronata P. Beauv. Ess. Agrostogr. 84, 158, 176. 1812.
Plants annual, mat forming, stoloniferous, rooting from lower nodes. Culms 5- 60 cm long. Ligule a ciliate membrane. Blades 3-22 cm by 2-7 mm, margin
tuberculate-ciliate, apex acuminate. Inflorescence composed of racemes. Racemes 3- 9, 1-6 cm long, digitate, spreading, unilateral. Rachis deciduous from axis, flattened,
terminating in a barren extension – bristle like. Spikelet packing broadside to rachis, crowded, regular, 2-rowed; pectinate, solitary. Fertile spikelets comprising 3-4 fertile
florets, with diminished florets at the apex; ovate, 4 mm long, laterally compressed,
breaking up at maturity, disarticulating above glumes but not between florets. Glumes dissimilar, persistent, shorter than spikelet. Lower glume 1.5-2 mm long, ovate, as
long as upper glume, 1-keeled, 1-nerved; primary nerve scabrous; lateral nerves absent; apex acute. Upper glume oblong, 0.5 times length of adjacent fertile lemma,
membraneous, 1-keeled, 1-nerved; primary nerves smooth; lateral nerves absent; apex obtuse, 1-awned, subapical, 2-3 mm long. Florets: fertile florets appressed to
rhachilla. Fertile lemma gibbous, 3 mm long, membraneous, keeled, 3-nerved; midnerve scaberulous; lateral nerves obscure; apex acute. Palea as long as lemma, 2-
nerved; keels wingless, or winged. Anthers 3, 0.7 mm long. Caryopsis 1 mm long, with free soft pericarp, rugose.
Notes
Found in Southeastern Europe, North Africa, Western Asia, Arabia, China, Eastern Asia, India, Indo-China, Malesia, Australasia, North and South America. A
troublesome weed in crops, drought-resistant, sand-binder and stabilizer, lawns and playing fields, tolerant of alkaline soils, nitrate poisoning has been reported, native
pasture grass, valuable to excellent fodder grass, forage, quite palatable and nutritious, used by indigenous people to treat amenorrhea and stomach ache; edible grains, seeds
dried and ground used for porridge during scarcity in Africa, a decoction from seeds used for kidney inflammations.
Distribution at Sulawesi
North: Manado; Minahasa, Ratatotok, Alt. 0 m; Amurang. Central: Palu, Biromaru, Alt. 15 m; 25 km South of Palu, Alt. 100 m, and 125 m; Between Palu and
Doda, Alt. 470 m; 3-4 Km NE Palu; Donggala, Tg. Karang, Alt. 100 m. South: Makasar. Southeast: Kendari.
Habitat
Poor and dry soils.
Specimen examined
Beguin 59 BO; leg. ign. 61 BO; Koorders 17240 β, 17239 β BO; Balgooy
2962 BO; Eyma 1767 BO; Kjellberg 390 BO; PTU 56 BO; Meijer 9201, 9196 BO; Papa 179, 299 WALL; Kurniawan 171 WALL; Lasut 942, 965 WALL.
34.
ELEUSINE Gaertn. Type: Eleusine coracana L. Gaertner. Fruct. Sem. Pl. 1:
7. 1788; Ill. Fl. N. U.S. ed. 2 1: 228. 1913; Contr. U.S. Natl. Herb. 126: 183-258. 1909; Fl. Trop. Afr. 9: 22. 1917; Kew Bull. 27: 251-270. 1972; Kew Bull. 37: 133-
162. 1982.
From Eleusis, a very ancient city and deme a township or division, a commune of Africa; famous for the mysteries of Ceres, about 14 miles northwest of Athens, to
the west of the town lay of the Rharian, where Demeter, the Greek goddess of earth’s
fruits, was said to have sown the first seeds of corn; Demeter Ceres for the Roman, by whom she because the mother of Persephone.
About 9 species, tropical and subtropical, eastern and north-eastern tropical Africa, Europe, Asia, Australia, Pasific, and America. Plant annual or perennial,
tufted or mat-forming, glabrous, herbaceous, more or less flattened. Culms more or less erect to geniculately ascending, sometimes rooting at the lower nodes,
rhizomatous, rarely stoloniferous. Auricles absent. Sheath compressed and strongly keeled. Ligule a fringed membrane. Blades flat or folded. Plants bisexual.
Inflorescence spicate and terminal, unilateral branches, primary branches digitate or subdigitate terminating in a spikelet, bisexual and strongly compressed laterally
spikelets several-flowered, spikelets secund and sessile to subsessile; florets bisexual, reduced floret at apex. Glumes dissimilar, keeled and awnless. Lower glume 1-
nerved. Upper glume 3-7-nerved. Lemmas entire with a prominent keel. Palea keeled, winged or wingless. Lodicules 2, minute, joined or free. Stamens 3. Ovary
glabrous. Stigmas 2, plumose, white or dark. Common weed species, often HCN toxic, ornamental when in flower, grain crop
species, savannah and upland grassland, open habitats.
Key to the Species
1.a. Culms 75 cm long; spikelets packing broadside to rachis; lower glumes less than 2 mm long; upper glume elliptic, with 5-7-nerved; palea as long as lemma
………………………………………………34.1. Eleusine coracana
b. Culms 12-25 cm long; spikelets attached alternately on either side of rachis; lower glume 2 mm long; upper glume ovate-acute, with 1-3-nerved; palea
slightly shorter than lemma ……………………………34.2. Eleusine indica 34.1.
Eleusine coracana L. Gaertn. Fruct. Sem. Pl. 1: 8, pl. 1, f.11. 1788.
Cynosurus coracanus L. Syst. Nat. ed. 10 2: 875. 1759. Eleusine cerealis Salisb. Icon. Stirp. Rar. : 19. 1796.
Eleusine pilosa Gilli. Ann. Naturhist. Mus. Wien 69: 50. 1965. Eleusine tocussa Fresen. Mus. Senckenberg 2: 141. 1837.
Plants annual, caespitose, densely tufted. Culms 75 cm long, erect to ascending; internodes elliptical in section. Sheaths keeled, outer margin hairy. Ligule a ciliolate
membrane. Blades 20-40 cm by 5-9 mm. Inflorescence composed of racemes.
Peduncle glabrous, or pilose above. Racemes 5-6, digitate, erect, incurved, unilateral, 5 cm long. Rachis without wing, flattened. Spikelet packing broadside to rachis,
crowded, regular, 2-rowed. Spikelets solitary. Fertile spikelets sessile. Fertile spikelets comprising 4-8 fertile florets, with diminished florets at the apex; ovate, 7
mm long, laterally compressed, persistent. Glumes similar, shorter than spikelet. Lower glume 2 mm long, membraneous, 1-keeled, winged, 1-3-nerved; apex acute.
Upper glume 3 mm long, elliptic, membraneous, 1-keeled, winged on keel, 5-7- nerved; apex acute. Florets: fertile lemma 4 mm long, lanceolate, membraneous, 3-
nerved; apex acute. Palea as long as lemma, 2-nerved. Lodicules 2, cuneate, fleshy. Caryopsis with free soft pericarp, orbicular, 2 mm long, rugose.
Notes
Found in Northern and Central Europe, North Africa, Western Asia, Arabia, China, India, Indo-China, Malesia, Australia, and Pasific. Flour used for treatment or
chicken-pox, grain rather unpalatable but highly nutritious, grains eaten by baboons, widely grown in warm regions of Africa and Asia, recommended for diabetics, this
plants reported to be diaphoretic, diuretic, and vermifuge. Usefull for erosion control. Distribution at Sulawesi.
South: Mt. Bonthain, Alt. 1800 m.
Habitat
Disturbed soils, in highland and lowland, in dry areas, in savannah areas with moderate rainfall.
Specimen examined
Bunnemeijer 12286 BO.
34.2. Eleusine indica L. Gaertn. Fruct. Sem. Pl. 1: 8. 1788.
