Carpet Grass

Annual. Culms tufted, ascending, up to 60 cm tall. Leaf sheaths tuberculate-hispid; leaf blades lanceolate, cordate, 3–10 × 1–2 cm, abaxial surface pectinate-setose along margins and veins, adaxial surface glabrous; ligule ca. 1 mm, ciliate. Inflorescence digitate; racemes 4–6, 10–15 cm, narrowly ascending, rachis glabrous, bare of spikelets in the lower part, spikelets paired or single. Spikelets elliptic, 3.5–5.5 mm, pale green; lower glume ovate-lanceolate, ca. 2 mm, acuminate; upper glume papery, elliptic, shiny, margins ciliate with silky white or pinkish hairs, apex caudate; lower lemma similar to upper glume but thicker and glabrous; upper lemma ovate-elliptic, 3/5 spikelet length, obtuse with a fine scabrous 2–3 mm awn; upper palea papillose with swollen lacrimiform hairs. Anthers purple, ca. 1 mm. Fl. Sep. 2n = 36.

Tufted annual; culms 30-120 cm high, erect or ascending, nodes hairy. Leaf-blades narrowly lanceolate, 3-15 cm long, 5-20 mm wide, ± amplexicaul, tuberculate-ciliate on the margins. Inflorescence of 4-11 racemes, usually in 1 whorl; racemes 7-25 cm long, the lowest third to half bare of spikelets. Spikelets narrowly elliptic-ovate, 3.5-5.5 mm long; lower glume half to three-quarters as long as the spikelet; upper glume subulate-acuminate, cartilaginous, smooth and shining, the margins ciliate with appressed or eventually spreading hairs 1-2 mm long; upper lemma with an awn 2-4.5 mm long, the palea pappillose with gobular hairs.

Distribution: Kashmir; throughout the Old World tropics.

Weedy places, dry open forest. Hainan [Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, New Guinea, Sri Lanka, Thailand; Africa, Australia, Pacific Islands].

Milium cimicinum Linnaeus, Mant. Pl. 184. 1771; Axo-nopus cimicinus (Linnaeus) P. Beauvois; Panicum cimicinum (Linnaeus) Retzius; Urochloa cimicina (Linnaeus) Kunth.