Cenchrus echinatus L.

  • Authority

    Acevedo-Rodríguez, Pedro & collaborators. 1996. Flora of St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 78: 1-581.

  • Family

    Poaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Cenchrus echinatus L.

  • Description

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    Species Description - Annual herb, lacking stolons; flowering culms 1-5 dm tall, erect or decumbent at the base, sparingly branched. Leaf sheaths mostly glabrous; ligule 0.8 - 1.4 mm long; blades linear, flat to conduplicate, 6-20 x 0.3 - 1.1 cm, smooth, glabrous or hairy on the upper surface. Inflorescence linear to oblong; main axis 35- 80 mm long; involucre with spines emerging at irregular intervals, usually >4 mm wide, not densely crowded on the main axis. Spikelets solitary, lancelote to ovate, 4.9 - 6.5 x 1.3 2.1 mm; lower glume 1.2 - 3mm long, 1 nerved; upper glume 3.8 - 5.7mm long, 5 nerved, lower floret, lemma lanceloate to ovate, 5 - nerved, muticuous; palea fully developed, in upper floret, lemma ovate to lanceolate, hyaline, minutely papillate, yellow, 4.5 - 7mm long, muticous.

  • Distribution

    A common herb of coastal sandy beaches. Great Cruz Bay (A 788), Little Lameshur (A2020). Also on St. Croix, St. Thomas, Tortola, and Virign Gorda; a common weed of disturbed soil sites in tropical and warm- temperate America

    Saint John Virgin Islands of the United States South America| Virgin Gorda Virgin Islands South America| Tortola Virgin Islands South America| Saint Thomas Virgin Islands of the United States South America| Saint Croix Virgin Islands of the United States South America|