710 



MISC. PUBLICATION 200, U. S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE 



Sacciolepis indica (L.) Chase. An- 

 nual; culms slender, spreading, 20 to 

 60 cm. tall; blades 2 to 4 mm. wide; 

 panicle spikelike, 1 to 4 cm. long; 



gla- 



spikelets about 2.5 mm. long, 

 brous or pilose near the summit. % 

 — Introduced in a Government pecan 

 orchard, Thomasville, Ga.; India. 



140. OPLISMENUS Beauv. 



Spikelets terete or somewhat laterally compressed, subsessile, solitary or in 

 pairs, in 2 rows crowded or approximate on one side of a narrow scabrous 

 or hairy rachis; glumes about equal, entire, or emarginate, awned from the 

 apex or from between the lobes; sterile lemma exceeding the glumes and fruit, 

 notched or entire, mucronate or short-awned, enclosing a hyaline palea; 

 fertile lemma elliptic, acute, convex or boat-shaped, the firm margins clasping 

 the palea, not inrolled. Freely branching, creeping, shade-loving annuals or 

 perennials, with erect flowering shoots, flat, thin, lanceolate or ovate blades, 

 and several one-sided, thickish, short racemes rather distant on a slender axis. 

 Type species, Oplismenus africamis Beauv. Name from Greek hoplismenos, 

 armed, alluding to the awned spikelets. 



Rachis of racemes mostly 2 to 3 mm. long, bearing usually not more than 5 spikelets; 



blades 1 to 3 cm. long. 1. O. setarius. 



Rachis of lower racemes 10 to 30 mm. long, bearing more than 8 spikelets; blades mostly 



5 cm. or more long. 2. O. hirtellus. 



1. Oplismenus setarius (Lam.) 

 Roem. and Schult. (Fig. 1082.) Peren- 

 nial; culms slender, lax, ascending or 

 prostrate, 10 to 20 cm. long, some- 

 times as much as 30 cm.; blades 

 ovate to ovate-lanceolate, thin, 1 to 

 3 cm. long, 4 to 10 mm. wide; panicle 

 long-exserted, usually not more than 



5 cm. long; racemes usually 3 to 5, 

 subglobose, distant or the upper 

 approximate, the lower internodes 

 sometimes as much as 2 cm. long, the 

 rachis 2 to 3 mm. long, sometimes to 



6 mm.; spikelets about 5 (4 to 8) on 

 each rachis; awn of first glume 4 to 

 8 mm. long. % — Shaded places 

 along the coast, North Carolina to 

 Florida, Arkansas, and Texas; tropical 

 America at low altitudes. 



2. Oplismenus hirtellus (L.) Beauv. 

 (Fig. 1083.) Perennial; culms widely 

 creeping and branching, the fertile 

 culms erect from an ascending base, 

 commonly 20 to 30 cm. tall; sheaths 

 glabrous to papillose-hispid; blades 

 5 to 10 cm. long, 1 to 2 cm. wide; 

 panicle 5 to 10 cm. long; racemes 3 

 to 7, rather distant, the rachis 1 to 

 3 cm. long, the spikelets green with 

 erect purple awns, the awn of the 



Figure 1083. — Oplismenus hirtellus, X Yi- (Amer. 

 Gr. Natl. Herb. 602, Trinidad.) 



first glume 5 to 10 mm. long. % — 

 Shady places, Texas (Cameron 

 County); Mexico, and the West 

 Indies to Argentina. Sometimes culti- 

 vated by florists as a basket plant 

 and for edging, under the name 

 Panicum variegatum. It has been in- 

 correctly referred to Oplismenus bur- 

 manni (Retz.) Beauv. The common 

 form in cultivation is variegated, the 

 blades striped with white. 



