MANUAL OF THE GRASSES OF THE UNITED STATES 



503 



southern Arizona; Mexico and Guate- 

 mala. 



103. CYNODON L. Rich. 



(Capri ola Adans.) 



Spikelets 1-flowered, awnless, ses- 

 sile in 2 rows along one side of a 

 slender continuous rachis and ap- 

 pressed to it, the rachilla disarticulat- 

 ing above the glumes and prolonged 

 behind the palea as a slender naked 

 bristle, sometimes bearing a rudi- 

 mentary lemma; glumes narrow, acu- 

 minate, 1-nerved, about equal, snorter 

 than the floret; lemma firm, strongly 

 compressed, pubescent on the keel, 

 3-nerved, the lateral nerves close to 

 the margins. Perennial, usually low 

 grasses, with creeping stolons or rhi- 

 zomes, short blades, and several slen- 

 der spikes digitate at the summit of 

 the upright culms. Type species, 

 Cynodon dactylon. Name from kuon 

 (kun-), dog, and odous, tooth, allud- 

 ing to the sharp hard scales of the 

 rhizome. 



1. Cynodon dactylon (L.) Pers. 

 Bermuda grass. (Fig. 737.) Exten- 

 sively creeping by scaly rhizomes or 

 by strong flat stolons, the old blade- 

 less sheaths of the stolon and the 

 lowest one of the branches often 

 forming conspicuous pairs of "dog's 

 teeth"; flowering culms flattened, 

 usually erect or ascending, 10 to 40 

 cm. tall; ligule a conspicuous ring of 

 white hairs; blades flat, glabrous or 

 pilose on the upper surface, those of 

 the innovations often conspicuously 

 distichous; spikes usually 4 or 5, 2.5 

 to 5 cm. long; spikelets imbricate, 2 

 mm. long, the lemma boat-shaped, 

 acute. % (Capriola dactylon Kunt- 

 ze.) — Open ground, grassland, fields, 

 and waste places, common, Maryland 

 to Oklahoma, south to Florida and 

 Texas, west to California; also oc- 

 casional north of this region (Massa- 

 chusetts to Michigan, Oregon) ; warm 

 regions of both hemispheres, intro- 

 duced in America. Bermuda grass is 

 the most important pasture grass of 

 the Southern States, and is also 

 widely utilized there as a lawngrass. 



On alluvial ground it may grow suf- 

 ficiently rank to be cut for hay. It 

 propagates readily by its rhizomes 

 and stolons, and on this account may 

 become a troublesome weed in culti- 

 vated fields. This grass is known also 

 as wire-grass (especially the weedy 

 form in fields). A more robust form, 



Figure 736. — Microchloa kunthii. Plant, X Vi' 

 (Conzatti 3605, Mexico.) 



found along the seacoast of Florida, 

 has been called C. maritimus H. B. 

 K., though the type of that (from 

 Peru) is characteristic C. dactylon. 

 There are large areas of Bermuda 

 grass around the Roosevelt Dam, 



