Flora of the Hawaiian Islands
Monocotyledon Literature for Digitaria setigera
Wagner et al., 1990, 1999; Lorence & Wagner, 2019.
   Poaceae -- The Grass Family Bibliography
      Digitaria setigera

Common name(s): crabgrass, itchy crabgrass, kukaepua`a, mau`u kukaepua`a
General Information
DistributionNative to tropical Asia from India to Sri Lanka, and various Pacific islands including Micronesia, Melanesia, and Polynesia. In the Hawaiian Islands, indigenous to Ni`ihau, Kaua`i, O`ahu, Moloka`i, Lana`i, Maui, Hawai`i.















Click here for detailed USGS map by Jonathan Price
Habit
Annual; culms geniculately ascending from a decumbent base, 20‒100 cm long.
Leaves
Leaves with sparsely to densely stiff pubescent sheath; ligule 1.5‒3 mm long, truncate, erose; blade linear-lanceolate, 3‒25 cm long, 3‒12 mm wide, surfaces moderately to densely stiff pubescent.
Flowers
Inflorescences composed of 2‒3(‒15) racemes arranged on a central axis 0‒1.5 cm long, or digitate in smaller plants, racemes 4‒15 cm long, often remaining bunched and parallel. Spikelets in pairs, imbricate, rachis trigonous, winged, margins scabrid-ciliolate and bearing long, glistening hairs, spikelets lanceolate to elliptic-lanceolate, 2‒3 mm long; proximal glume absent or less than 0.3 mm long, distal glume ⅛‒¼ as long as the spikelet, oblong or triangular, 0‒3-veined, margin usually arachnoid pubescent; first lemma as long as the spikelet, 7-veined, the veins evenly spaced or with a wide central interval, appressed pubescent or silky pubescent, rarely ciliate or with stiff bristles; palea as long as lemma.
Fruit
Caryopsis gray to yellowish brown, lanceolate, glabrous.
Chromosomes
2n = 18, 36, 54, 72.
Contributor
Warren Wagner