Specimen examined
Papa 211 WALL.
27. DICHANTHIUM Willemet
. Type: Dichanthium nodosum Willemet. Ann. Bot. Usteri 18: 11. 1796; Contr. U.S. Natl. Herb. 46. 192-193. 2003.
Diplasanthum Desv. Mem. Soc. Agric. Angers 1: 170, t. 8, f.1. 1831. Eremopogon Stapf. Fl. Trop. Afr. 9: 182-183. 1917.
Lepeocercis Trin. Fund. Agrost. 203, t. 18. 1820.
From the Greek dicha “in two” and anthos “a flower”, referring to the lower spikelets or to the kinds of spikelets.
About 20 species, Africa, Asia, Australasia, and America. Plants perennial, herbaceous, branched or simple, sometimes decumbent or geniculate, rhizomatous or
stoloniferous, tufted, forming upright tussocks, sometimes with extensive creeping stolons. Blades sometimes aromatic or not; hairy or bearded culm nodes. Auricles
absent. Ligule membraneous and usually ciliate or fringed. Plants bisexual. Inflorescence terminal or also axillary; solitary or compound racemes digitately or
subdigitately arranged at the summit of the culm; homogamous pairs and obtuse sessile spikelets; lower or basal spikelets either male or sterile; sessile spikelets
bisexual and dorsally compressed or imbricate; callus obtuse; fragile rachis. Glumes 2, more or less equal or subequal. Lower glume boat-shaped and chartaceous to
cartilaginous. Upper lemma entire and awned; glabrous awn bent about the middle; pedicellate spikelets male or sterile and unawned. Palea absent or present. Lodicule
2, free and fleshy. Stamen 1-3. Ovary glabrous. Stigma 2. Caryopsis compressed. Ornamental and attractive, weed species more or less aromatic, native pasture
species, important fodder grass, highly palatable and productive, woodland, disturbed ground, open places, marshes, subdesert.
Key to the Species
1.a. Peduncle pubescent……………………………27.2. Dichanthium aristatum
b. Peduncle glabrous ……………………………………………………………2 2.a. Culms geniculately ascending; fertile spikelets oblong, up to 6 mm long; lower
glume cartilaginous …………………..27.1. Dichanthium annulatum
b. Culms erect; fertile spikelets elliptic, up to 4 mm long; lower glume chartaceous
…….…………………………….27.3. Dichanthium caricosum 27.1.
Dichanthium annulatum Forssk. Stapf. Fl. Trop. Afr. 9: 178. 1917.
Andropogon annulatus Forssk. Fl. Aegypt.-Arab. : 173. 1775. Andropogon comosus Link. Hort. Berol. 1: 239. 1827.
Andropogon garipensis Steud. Syn. Pl. Glumac. 1: 379. 1854. Andropogon nodosus Willemet Nash. N. Amer. Fl. 172: 122. 1912.
Andropogon obtusus Nees. Bot. Beechey Voy. 243. 1838. Andropogon scandens Roxb. Hort. Bengal. Fl. Ind. Ed. Carey 1: 262. 1820: 7.
1814. Bothriochloa tuberculata W.Z. Fang. Bull. Bot. Res., Harbin 61: 97-98, f. 1.
1986. Lepeocercis annulata Forssk. Nees. Fl. Afr. Austral. I11. 98. 1841.
Plants perennial, caespitose, tufted to densely tufted. Culms 20-100 cm long, slender, geniculately ascending. Nodes hairy to bearded. Ligule an eciliate membrane.
Blades 2-25 cm by 1-5 mm. Inflorescence composed of racemes. Peduncle glabrous. Racemes 2-12, 3-6 cm long, digitate. Rachis fragile at the nodes, subterere, ciliate on
margins, internodes filiform. Spikelets in pairs: fertile spikelets sessile, 1 in the cluster; companion sterile spikelets pedicelled, 1 in the cluster. Pedicels filiform,
without a translucent median line, ciliate. Fertile spikelets comprising 1 basal sterile florets, 1 fertile florets, without rhachilla extension; oblong, 2-6 mm long, dorsally
compressed, falling entire, deciduous with accessory branch structures; callus pilose, base obtuse, attached transversely. Sterile spikelets: basal sterile spikelets absent, or
well developed, 0-12 in number lower raceme, barren, or male, smaller than fertile; lemma awnless. Companion sterile spikelets well-developed, containing empty
lemmas, or male, oblong, as long as fertile, separately deciduous; lemmas enclosed by glumes, muticuous. Glumes dissimilar, exceeding apex of florets, firmer than fertile
lemma. Lower glume as long as spikelet, oblong, cartilaginous, without keels; surface concave, pubescent to villous, hairy below, with tubercle-based hairs; margins ciliate,
apex obtuse, or acute. Upper glume lanceolate, 1-keeled, 3-nerved; margins ciliolate. Florets: basal sterile florets barren, without significant palea; lemma hyaline, 0-nerved,
without midnerve, without lateral nerves. Fertile lemma linear, hyaline, without keel, 1-nerved; apex entire, 1-awned; principal awn apical, 12-22 cm long, geniculate, with
twisted column. Palea absent or minute. Anthers 3.
Notes
Found in North Africa, Western Asia, Arabia, China, Eastern Asia, India, Indo- China, Malesia, Australasia, Mexico, Mesoamericana. Weed species, under grazing
forms open turf, used for rough lawns, attractive, very palatable both as pasture and hay, excellent fodder, forage, readily eaten by horses and all kinds of cattle, suitable
for silage, low nutritive value, drought-resistant, survives short-term flooding, stands very heavy grazing, naturalized, widely used for hay in India, tolerates saline soils
well, useful for erosion control, excellent ground cover. Distribution at Sulawesi
Central: Kalosi?, Alt. 700 m. Habitat
Occurs along roadsides, bushy places, open disturbed areas, pasture, in grassland on rocky ground, stony or sandy plains, sandstone, waste ground, moist soil, slopes
and disturbed clearings, canal banks, tropics and subtropics, stream channel, on calcareous substrates.
Specimen examined
Kjellberg 3020 BO.
27.2. Dichanthium aristatum Poir. C.E. Hubb. Fl. Trop. Afr. 9:178. 1917.
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