| Monocotyledon | Literature for Melinis repens
Wagner et al., 1990, 1999; Lorence & Wagner, 2019. |
| Poaceae -- The Grass Family | Bibliography |
| Melinis repens | |
Common name(s): Natal grass, Natal redtop |
| General Information | ||
|---|---|---|
| Distribution | Native to Africa and now widely naturalized throughout the tropics.In the Hawaiian Islands, naturalized on Midway, Ni`ihau, Kaua`i, O`ahu, Moloka`i, Lana`i, Maui, Kaho`olawe, Hawai`i. | |
| Habit |
Annual or perennial; culms loosely tufted, subcoriaceous, erect or ascending, 3-10 dm tall, often many-branched, glabrous. |
|
| Leaves |
Leaves with sheath 7‒10(‒20) cm long, proximal ones sometimes papillose-pilose; ligule densely ciliate, ca. 1 mm long; blade usually glaucous, flat or folded, 5‒30 cm long, 2‒10 mm wide, striate, adaxial surface scaberulous, abaxial surface glabrous. |
|
| Flowers |
Inflorescences a fluffy panicle, glossy, pink or purple, color fading
with age, ovoid to oblong, 5‒20 cm long, branches ascending, 3‒9 cm long, scaberulous, pedicel usually pilose in distal part. Spikelets ovate, 2.5‒8.5 mm long, villous, hairs extending 1‒4 mm beyond apex; first glume narrowly oblong, 0.3‒3.5 mm long, pilose, separated from second glume by an
internode 0.1‒1.2 mm long, second glume chartaceous, conspicuously gibbous, tapering to a glabrous membranous beak ¼‒½ the length of the glume, emarginate, mucronate, or with an inconspicuous awn to 7(‒10) mm long; first lemma narrower and less gibbous than second glume, first
palea ciliate on the keel; second lemma ca. 2.5 mm long, short-stipitate, second palea similar to second lemma, but thinner, pale
green to white, smooth, glossy, 1.6‒1.8 mm long, faintly 2-veined, apex obtuse, awnless. |
|
| Fruit |
Caryopsis pale brown, narrowly ovoid, 1.2-1.5 mm long, smooth. |
|
| Chromosomes |
2n = 18, 36 |
|
| Contributor |
Nancy Khan |
