| Monocotyledon | Literature for Eleusine indica
Wagner et al., 1990, 1999; Lorence & Wagner, 2019. |
| Poaceae -- The Grass Family | Bibliography |
| Eleusine indica | |
Common name(s): manienie ali`i, wiregrass |
| General Information | ||
|---|---|---|
| Distribution | Native to the Old World, but long naturalized in warm regions of the New World.In the Hawaiian Islands, naturalized on Kure, Midway, French Frigate Shoals, Kaua`i, O`ahu, Moloka`i, Lana`i, Maui, Hawai`i. | |
| Habit |
Annual or sometimes perennial;
culms pale green, prostrate or ascending, 25‒60 cm tall, glabrous, conspicuously compressed, usually profusely branched at base, strongly rooted. |
|
| Leaves |
Leaves with sheath 3‒9 cm long, conspicuously compressed, striate, keeled, sparsely long pilose at throat and along margins; ligule 0.2‒0.5 mm long, membranous, truncate or fimbriate; blade 15‒25 cm long, 4‒10
mm wide, conspicuously keeled, scabrous on keel and on margin near apex, adaxial surface sparsely long pilose with a conspicuous translucent yellow band 2‒3 mm long arising from base, apex acute. |
|
| Flowers |
Inflorescences composed of 2‒6 racemes, umbelliform, 1 raceme often borne 2‒5 cm below others, 4‒10 cm long. Spikelets 3‒8-flowered, 5‒7 mm long, glabrous; glumes broad, keeled, margin hyaline or purple tinged, first glume 2‒3 mm long, 2‒4-veined, second glume 3‒4 mm long, 6‒9-veined; lemmas 3‒3.5 mm long, keel scaberulous, often with 1‒2 indistinct veins, apex acute; palea 2.5‒3 mm long, apex acute. |
|
| Fruit |
Caryopses dark reddish brown, 1‒2 mm long, ridged longitudinally, striated with concentric rings. |
|
| Chromosomes |
2n = 18, 36, 54. |
|
| Contributor |
Warren Wagner |
