| General Information |
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| Distribution | Native 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.
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Habit
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Annual; culms geniculately ascending from a decumbent base, 20‒100 cm long.
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Leaves
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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.
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Flowers
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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.
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Fruit
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Caryopsis gray to yellowish brown, lanceolate, glabrous.
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Chromosomes
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2n = 18, 36, 54, 72.
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Contributor
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Warren Wagner
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