Goosegrass

This species is a good forage grass.

A sporadic monsoon grass, reported to be a good fodder grass for cattle.

Culms tufted, erect or geniculately ascending, 8–50 cm tall. Leaf sheaths glabrous, compressed; leaf blades narrowly lanceolate, 7–20 × 0.3–1 cm, soft, adaxial surface tuberculate-pilose at base, tapering to a setaceous apex. Inflorescence subdigitate or racemes arranged along a central axis up to 15 cm; racemes mainly grouped in pseudo-whorls or pairs, 4–12 cm, ascending. Spikelets densely imbricate, oblong with serrate outline, 6–10 mm, florets 6–20, stramineous at maturity; glumes papery-membranous; lower glume narrowly oblong, 1.2–3 mm, apex acute, mucronate; upper glume lanceolate, 1.5–3 mm, acuminate, awn-pointed; lemmas broadly ovate, 2–3 mm, keel scabrid, shallowly concave above middle and excurrent into a stout 0.5–1 mm awn-point, lateral veins also fractionally excurrent. Grain blackish, rugose, surface finely granular. Fl. and fr. autumn. 2n = 36.

Tufted annual; culms 15-75 cm high, erect or geniculately ascending. Leaf-blades 7-20 cm long, 5-11.5 mm wide, soft, glabrous or sparsely pilose on the upper surface, rounded at the base, tapering to a fine hair-like tip. Inflorescence composed of several to many slender ascending secund spikes 1.5-10 cm long. Spikelets 6-25-flowered, 5.5-13 mm long, closely overlapping, whitish-green or brownish; glumes unequal, the lower 1.2-3.0 mm long, acute and mucronate, the upper 1.5-3.0 mm long, acuminate and awned, the awn one- to two- thirds as long as the glume; lemmas narrowly ovate in profile, 2-2.8 mm long with a stout awn-point 0.3-0.9 mm long.

Hainan, Yunnan [Afghanistan, India, Indonesia, Myanmar, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam; Africa, SW Asia (S Arabia), N Australia, Pacific Islands; introduced in the West Indies].

Distribution: Pakistan (Punjab, N.W.F.P. & Kashmir); tropical Africa, Southeast Asia and Australia.

Field margins, river banks; 300–900 m.

Eleusine racemosa B. Heyne ex Roemer & Schultes, Syst. Veg. 2: 583. 1817; Acrachne verticillata (Roxburgh) Wight & Arnott ex Chiovenda; Eleusine verticillata Roxburgh; Lepto-chloa racemosa (B. Heyne ex Roemer & Schultes) Kunth; Sclero-dactylon micrandrum P. C. Keng & L. Liu.