Digitaria longiflora (Retz.) Pers. Syn. Pl. 1: 85. 1805.
Classification. (GPWG 2001) : Subfamily Panicoideae. Paniceae.
Basionym and/or Replacement Name: Paspalum longiflorum Retz., Observ. Bot. 4: 15 (1786).
Type of Basionym or Protologue Information: India: Malabar, ad margines agrorum, König s.n. (LT: LD; ILT: BM, K).
Recent synonyms: D. curvipes, D. eriolepis, D. propinqua, D. speciosa.
Key references (books and floras): [1810]. R.Brown, Prodromus (193 as Panicum tenuiflorum, Panicum propinquum), [1878] G.Bentham, Flora Australiensis 7 (461as Paspalum brevifolium), [1952] C.A.Gardner, Flora of Western Australia 1 Gramineae (226), [1969] E.E.Henty, Manual Grasses New Guinea (77), [1981] M.Lazarides in J.Jessop (ed)., Flora of Central Australia (474), [2002] D.Sharp & B.K.Simon, AusGrass, Grasses of Australia, [2008] S.W.L.Jacobs, R.D.B.Walley & D.J.B.Wheeler, Grasses of New South Wales (218).
Illustrations: [2008] S.W.L.Jacobs, R.D.B.Whalley & D.J.B.Wheeler, Grasses of New South Wales, 4th edn (218).
Habit. Annual or perennial. Rhizomes absent or present. Stolons absent or present. Culms erect or decumbent or sprawling, 10–60 cm tall, 4–20 -noded. Mid-culm internodes glabrous. Mid-culm nodes glabrous. Leaf-sheaths glabrous on surface or hairy. Leaf-sheath auricles absent. Ligule an eciliate membrane. Leaf-blades flat, 2.5–13 cm long, 1–5 mm wide. Leaf-blade surface smooth, glabrous or indumented.
Inflorescence. Inflorescence digitate, with racemose branches. Racemes 2–4, 1–10 cm long.
Spikelets. Spikelets pedicelled, 3 in the cluster. Fertile spikelets 2-flowered, the lower floret barren (rarely male), the upper fertile, comprising 1 basal sterile florets, comprising 1 fertile floret(s), without rachilla extension, elliptic, dorsally compressed, 1.2–2.3 mm long. Rhachilla internodes brief up to lowest fertile floret.
Glumes. Glumes thinner than fertile lemma. Upper glume elliptic, 1.2–2.3 mm long, membranous, without keels, 5–7 -nerved. Upper glume surface indumented. Florets. Basal sterile florets 1, barren, without significant palea. Lemma of lower sterile floret 100 % of length of spikelet, membranous, 7 -nerved.
Fertile lemma 1.2–2.1 mm long, without keel. Lemma apex muticous. Lodicules present.
Continental Distribution: Africa, Temperate Asia, Tropical Asia, Australasia, Pacific, North America, and South America.
Australian Distribution: Western Australia, Northern Territory, Queensland, New South Wales.
Western Australia: Gardner. Northern Territory: Darwin & Gulf, Central Australia North, Central Australia South. Queensland: Burke, Burnett, Cook, Darling Downs, Leichhardt, Maranoa, Moreton, North Kennedy, Port Curtis, South Kennedy, Wide Bay. New South Wales: North Coast, Central Coast.
Notes. Widely distributed in Australia. In tropical and subtropical wet sclerophyll forests, temperate wet sclerophyll forests, dry sclerophyll forests, Brigalow forests, tropical and subtropical sub-humid woodlands, temperate sub-humid woodlands, semi-arid shrub woodlands, arid and semi-arid low woodlands, eucalypt shrublands, arid tussock grasslands, and tropical sub-humid grasslands. A variable widespread species. Flowers probably year-long.
