109 



Fig. 83. Dactyloctenium aegyptium (L.) Willd. CROWFOOT-GRASS.— a. A 

 spikelet; b, 2 florets, the upper one rudimentary or imperfect; c, stamens; d,the 

 second empty glume. 



83. DACTYIiOCTENITTM Willd. Enum. Hort. Berol. 1029. 1809. Spikelets 

 several-flowered, the uppermost imperfect, sessile, and crowded in 2 rows 

 along one side of a continuous axis, forming unilateral spikes, these digitate 

 at the apex of the culm; rachilla articulated above the empty glumes and 

 between the florets. Glumes compressed laterally, keeled, the first 2 empty, the 

 2d awn-pointed; flowering glumes boat-shaped, mucronate-pointed. Fruit a 

 utricle, the thin pericarp loosely inclosing the wrinkled, globular seed. Annual, 

 with a more or less decumbent and creeping base and 2 to 6 terminal stout 

 spikes, the rhachis projecting beyond the spikelets. 



Species 2, one a weed in all the warmer coxmtries of the world. 



