Digitaria ternata (A. Rich.) Stapf

This species is a good forage grass.

Annual. Culms loosely tufted, ascending, up to 100 cm tall, glabrous or pilose with long fine hairs below inflorescence. Leaf sheaths puberulous or glabrous; leaf blades linear, 10–30 × 0.6–1 cm, adaxial surface papillose-pilose, base subrounded, apex acuminate; ligule 1–2 mm. Inflorescence subdigitate, axis villous; racemes 3–8, 10–20 cm; spikelets ternate; rachis broadly winged, ca. 1 mm broad, midrib low, margins scabrous; pedicel tips hispid with 0.2–0.8 mm setae. Spikelets oblong-lanceolate or elliptic-lanceolate, 1.8–2.5 mm, pale grayish green, hairs clavate; lower glume absent; upper glume 2/3–3/4 as long as spikelet, narrower than spikelet, intervein spaces and margins appressed-pilose to hirsute; lower lemma as long as spikelet, 5-veined with a central group of 3 and 2 marginal veins, intervein spaces and margins hairy; upper lemma blackish brown at maturity, as long as spikelet. Anthers 0.4–0.8 mm. Fl. and fr. Jun–Sep. 2n = 36.

Tropical E. & S. Africa, Nepal, E. India, Burma, China.

1800 m

Grassy, weedy places. Guangxi, Guizhou, Hong Kong, Sichuan, Yunnan [Bhutan, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Nepal, Philippines, Thailand; Africa; introduced in America and Australia].

Cynodon ternatus Hochstetter ex A. Richard, Tent. Fl. Abyss. 2:405. 1851; Panicum ternatum (Hochstetter ex A. Richard) Hochstetter ex Steudel; Paspalum ternatum (Hochstetter ex A. Richard) J. D. Hooker; Syntherisma ternata (Hochstetter ex A. Richard) Newbold.