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



Figure 1169.— Distribution of 

 Digitaria filiformis. 



Figure 1170. — Digitaria villosa. Plant, 

 X 1; snikelet and floret, X 10. (Curtiss 

 5300, Fla.) 



(fig. 1169). A form with glabrous spikelets from Manchester, N.H., 

 has been described as D. laeviglumis Fernald (fig. 1168, B). 



9. Digitaria villosa (Walt.) Pers. (Fig. 1170.) Perennial at least 

 in the Southern States, in large tufts, purplish at base; culms 0.75 to 

 1.5 m tall, rarely branching; sheaths, at 

 least the lower, grayish villous, some- 

 times sparsely so; blades elongate, 3 to 

 6 mm wide, often flexuous, from softly 

 pilose to nearly glabrous; racemes 2 to 

 7, narrowly ascending, rarely somewhat 



spreading, very 



slender, usually 15 



to 25 cm long, 



rather distant, 



often naked at 



base, sometimes 



interrupted; spike- 

 lets 2 to 2.5 mm 



long, usually dense- 

 ly pubescent with soft capitellate hairs, 

 the hairs longer than in D '. filiformis , and 

 sometimes only obscurely capitellate, the 

 spikelets otherwise very like those of 

 D. filiformis. % — Sandy fields and 

 woods, Maryland to Missouri, south to 

 Florida and Texas; Cuba, Mexico (fig. 1171). This species and D. 

 filiformis seem to intergrade to some extent. Plants from penin- 

 sular Florida with less strongly pubescent sheaths, 2 to 4 elongate 

 racemes, and spikelets with longer hairs 

 have been distinguished as D. leucocoma 

 (Nash) Urban. 



10. Digitaria panicea (Swartz) Urban. 

 (Fig. 1172.) Resembling D. villosa, but 

 more slender; blades folded or involute, 

 flexuous, about 1 mm wide; racemes 



mostly 1 to 3, 

 erect, 5 to 20 cm 

 long, usually 10 

 to 15 cm, very 

 slender, loosely 

 flowered ; spike- 

 lets about 1.5 mm 

 long, the capitel- 

 late hairs rather 

 stiff and appressed. % — Moist pine 

 barrens and open ground, southern Flor- 

 ida; West Indies, Brazil. 



11. Digitaria gracillima (Scribn.) 

 Fernald. (Fig. 1173.) Perennial in 

 dense tufts; culms 60 to 100 cm tall, 

 erect; lower sheaths appressed- villous ; 

 blades elongate, 1 to 2 mm wide, often involute, more or less 

 flexuous; racemes mostly 2 or 3, distant (rarely as many as 5 

 and fairly approximate), very slender; spikelets rather remote, 



Figure 1171.— Distribution of 

 Digitaria villosa. 



Figure 1172.— Digitaria panicea. Plant, 

 X l; spikelet and floret, X 10. (Tracy 

 9058, Fla.) 



