Present on Pacific Islands?  yes

Threat only at high elevations?  no

Common name(s): [more details]

English: lesser crabgrass, wire crabgrass

Habit:  grass

Description:  "Annual with slender, widely spreading stoloniferous culms and slender, erect, floriferous culm tips mostly 8-40 cm long.  Scale leaves at base of plant usually densely pubescent.  Sheaths rounded, variously hispid or hirsute to glabrous.  Ligules truncate, erose, mostly 0.3-1 mm long.  Blades variable, mostly 1-4 cm long and 1-3 mm wide but the lower ones to 8 cm long and 5 mm wide, typically with long, stiff, often papilla-based hairs scattered on both surfaces but occasionally glabrous.  Inflorescence of 2, occasionally 3, slender branches 2-7 cm long on a long, filiform peduncle.  Spikelets mostly 1.3-1.7 mm long, in pairs along the midrib of a broadly winged rhachis.  Both spikelets of the pair similar and pedicelled but the pedicels unequal in length.  First Glume typically absent but occasionally at least vestigial.  Second glume about as long as spikelet, pubescent on margins with 5 more or less equidistant nerves.  Lemma of lower floret as long as spikelet, pubescent on margins at least near apex, with 7 more or less equidistant nerves.   Lemma and palea of upper floret light-coloured, usually grayish" (Dassanayake, 1994; p. 167).

Description from World Grass Species.

Habitat/ecology:  "[M]ost common in light textured soils...along roadsides and in waste areas.  In southeast Asia, found from sea level to 1200 m.  It survives in open scrub, deciduous forests and bamboo forests and on rice bunds in Asia" "[M]ost common in light textured soils...along roadsides and in waste areas.  In southeast Asia, found from sea level to 1200 m.  It survives in open scrub, deciduous forests and bamboo forests and on rice bunds in Asia" (Holm et al., 1997; pp. 301-302).  In Sri Lanka, "a common grass of open, moist field borders, roadsides, and pasturelands at low to medium elevations" (Dassanayake, 1994; p. 167).  In Sri Lanka, "a common grass of open, moist field borders, roadsides, and pasturelands at low to medium elevations" (Dassanayake, 1994; p. 167).

Propagation:  Seed, spread by wind, water and animals (Holm et al., 1997; p. 302).

Native range:  "Native throughout the Old World tropics and introduced into the New World tropics and subtropics" (Dassanayake, 1994; p. 167).

Presence:

Pacific
Country/Terr./St. & Island group	Location	Cited status & Cited as invasive & Cited as cultivated & Cited as aboriginal introduction?	Reference & Comments
Federated States of Micronesia Chuuk Islands	Dublon (Tonowas) Island	native	Fosberg, F. R./Sachet, Marie-Hélène/Oliver, Royce (1987) (p. 38)
Federated States of Micronesia Chuuk Islands	Weno (Moen) Island	native	Fosberg, F. R./Sachet, Marie-Hélène/Oliver, Royce (1987) (p. 38)
Federated States of Micronesia Pohnpei Islands	Pohnpei Island	native	Fosberg, F. R./Sachet, Marie-Hélène/Oliver, Royce (1987) (p. 38)
Federated States of Micronesia Pohnpei Islands	Pohnpei Island		Glassman, S. F. (1952) (p. 127)
State of Hawaii Hawaiian Islands	Hawai‘i (Big) Island	introduced	Wester, Lyndon (1992) (p. 121)
State of Hawaii Hawaiian Islands	O‘ahu Island	introduced	Wester, Lyndon (1992) (p. 121)
Philippines Philippine Islands	Philippine Islands	native	U.S. Dept. Agr., Agr. Res. Serv. (2007)

Pacific Rim
Country/Terr./St. & Island group	Location	Cited status & Cited as invasive & Cited as cultivated & Cited as aboriginal introduction?	Reference & Comments
Australia Australia (continental)	Australia (continental)	native	U.S. Dept. Agr., Agr. Res. Serv. (2007)
Australia Australia (continental)	Northern Territory		Holm, Leroy/Doll, Jerry/Holm, Eric/Pancho, Jaun/Herberger, James (1997) (p. 301)
Australia Australia (continental)	Queensland		Holm, Leroy/Doll, Jerry/Holm, Eric/Pancho, Jaun/Herberger, James (1997) (p. 301)
Cambodia Cambodia	Cambodia (Kingdom of)	native	U.S. Dept. Agr., Agr. Res. Serv. (2007)
China China	China (People's Republic of)	native	U.S. Dept. Agr., Agr. Res. Serv. (2007)
Indonesia Indonesia	Indonesia (Republic of)	native	U.S. Dept. Agr., Agr. Res. Serv. (2007)
Malaysia Malaysia	Malaysia (country of)	native	U.S. Dept. Agr., Agr. Res. Serv. (2007)
Taiwan Taiwan	Taiwan Island	native	U.S. Dept. Agr., Agr. Res. Serv. (2007)
Thailand Thailand	Thailand (Kingdom of)	native	U.S. Dept. Agr., Agr. Res. Serv. (2007)
Vietnam Vietnam	Vietnam (Socialist Republic of)	native	U.S. Dept. Agr., Agr. Res. Serv. (2007)

Indian Ocean
Country/Terr./St. & Island group	Location	Cited status & Cited as invasive & Cited as cultivated & Cited as aboriginal introduction?	Reference & Comments
British Indian Ocean Territory Chagos Archipelago	Diego Garcia Island	introduced invasive	Topp, J. M. W. (1988) (p. 17)

Additional information:  Additional online information about Digitaria longiflora is available from the Hawaiian Ecosystems at Risk project (HEAR).

Taxonomic information about Digitaria longiflora may be available from the Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN).

References:

Dassanayake, M. D., gen. ed. 1994. A revised handbook to the flora of Ceylon. Vol VIII. Amerind Pub. Co., New Delhi. 458 pp.

Fosberg, F. R./Sachet, Marie-Hélène/Oliver, Royce. 1987. A geographical checklist of the Micronesian monocotyledonae. Micronesica 20:1-126.

Glassman, S. F. 1952. The flora of Ponape. Bishop Mus. Bull. 209: 1-152.

Holm, Leroy/Doll, Jerry/Holm, Eric/Pancho, Jaun/Herberger, James. 1997. World weeds: natural histories and distribution. John Wiley & Sons. 1129 pp.

Topp, J. M. W. 1988. An annotated check list of the flora of Diego Garcia, British Ocean Territory. Atoll Research Bulletin No. 313. Smithsonian Institution, Washington. 21 pp.

U.S. Dept. Agr., Agr. Res. Serv. 2007. National Genetic Resources Program. Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN). Online searchable database.

Wester, Lyndon. 1992. Origin and distribution of adventive flowering plants in Hawai‘i. In: Stone, Charles P.; Smith, Clifford W. and Tunison, J. Timothy. Alien plant invasions in native ecosystems of Hawaii: Management and Research. University of Hawaii, Cooperative National Park Research Studies Unit, Honolulu. University of Hawaii Press. .