GRASSES, 3845 
Syntherisma setosum (Desv.) Nash, Bull. Torr. Club, 25:300. 1898. 
Digitaria setosa Desv. in Hamilton, Prodr. Pl. Ind. Occ. 6. 182p. 
Panicum hamiltonii Kunth, Enum, 1:84. 1833. 
Grisev. F]. Brit. W. Ind. 544. 
Decumbent and rooting at the base; softly pilose below, smooth above; lower 
sheaths papillose-pilose, the upper longer, smooth; spikes numerous; spikelets in 
pairs, crowded, frequently with a long bristle at the base; oblong-lanceolate, acute, 
first glume minute, second 3-nerved, shorter than the spikelet, the third 5 or7 nerved, 
greenish. 
West INDIES, MEXICO, AND OTHER TROPICAL COUNTRIES, 
Louisianian area. Florida. 
ALABAMA: Fugitive on ballast. Mobile, September, 1891. Annual. A well-marked 
species, conspicuous by the shining silky villosity covering the lower part of the 
plant, the strongly-nerved spikelets, and crowded dull greenish racemes. 
Type locality West Indian. 
Herb. Geol. Surv. Herb. Mohr. 
Syntherisma sanguinale (L.) Nash, Bull. Torr. Club, 22:421. 1895. 
COMMON CRAB GRASS. 
Panicum sanguinale L. Sp. Pl. 1:57. 1753. 
Digitaria sanguinalis Scop. Fl. Carn. ed. 2, 1:52. 1 
Syntherisma praecor Walt. Fl. Car. 76. 1788. 
Paspalum sanguinale Lam. Tabl. Eneyel. 1:176. 1791. 
Ell. Sk. 1:131. Gray, Man. ed. 6, 630. Chap. FI. 572. Coulter, Contr. Nat. Herb, 
2:501. Scribner, Grass. Tenn. 2:38, t. 7, f. 20. 
TEMPERATE AND WARMER REGIONS, COSMOPOLITAN. 
Alleghenian to Louisianian area, Ontario and throughout the Atlantic States, 
west to Nebraska and Texas. 
ALABAMA: All over the State. Cultivated and waste ground; a very variable and 
widely diffused weed. Annnal. 
Type locality: ‘‘Mab. in America, Europa australi.” 
Economic uses: Important spontaneous hay crop. 
Herb. Geol. Surv. Herb. Mohr. 
Syntherisma fimbriatum (Link) Nash, Bull. Torr. Club, 25:302. 1898, 
Digitaria fimbriata Link, Hort. Reg. Bot. Berol. 1: 226. 1827, 
D. marginata Roth in Griseb, Fl. Brit. W. Ind. 544. 1864. (?) 
Culm 2 to 24 feet long, prostrate at the base, rooting at the lower nodes, at length 
branching, smooth; nodes more or less pubescent; lower sheaths papillose-hirsute, 
upper longer, glabrous; leaves 1 to 3 inches long, flat, erect, glabrous, or more or 
less pubescent at the base witha few stiff hairs; panicle long-exserted ; racemes 2 to 3 
inches long, erect-spreading, not crowded, mostly in pairs, rachis winged; spikelets 
lanceolate, very acute, pediceled, in pairs; first glume minute, 3-angular, glabrous; 
second three-fourths as long as the spikelet, 3-nerved, pubescent on the margins and 
between the nerves with long appressed hairs; third scale 7-nerved exceeding the 
flowering scales and also pubescent with long appressed hairs, which on the margin 
become at length widely spreading; fourth glume lanceolate, very acute, yellowish 
with maturity. 
TROPICAL AND SUBTROPICAL COUNTRIES. WeEsT INDIES, MEXICO, SOUTH AMERICA, 
AUSTRALIA, TROPICAL AFRICA, East INDIES, 
Carolinian and Louisianian areas, District of Columbia to Florida, west to Texas, 
and from Missouri and Kansas southward. 
ALABAMA: Coast plain. Waste places, ballast heaps. Mobile County. August, 
September; not infrequent. Annual. 
Readily distinguished from Syntherisma sanguinale by its longer, narrower, and 
more acute spikelets with their more copious pubescence, the fringed margins of 
the third scale, and the smooth nerves, 
Type locality not ascertained. 
Herb. Geol. Surv. Herb. Mohr. 
TRICHOLAENA Schrad. in Schult. Mant. 2: 163. 1824. 
Ten species. Africa, tropical America. 
Tricholaena insularis (L.) Griseb. F1. Brit. W. Ind. 557. 1864. 
Andropogon insularis L. Pl. Jam. Pugill. 30. 1759. 
Panicum insulare G. W. Meyer, Prim. Fl. Esseq. 60. 
P. leucophaeum H. B, K. Nov. Gen. et Sp.1:97. 1815. 
Chap. Fl. Suppl. 666; ed. 3, 582. Vasey, Contr. Nat. Herb. 3:25. 1892. Coulter 
Contr. Nat. Herb. 2: 502. 
