Taxon: Digitaria abyssinica (Hochst. ex A. Rich.) Stapf

A declared noxious weed by USDA-APHIS (as Digitaria scalarum).

A declared aquatic or terrestrial noxious weed and/or noxious-weed seed in these U.S. states (see state noxious weed lists), with links to state information or web documents:

FL(as Digitaria scalarum)*, MA*, MA(as Digitaria scalarum)*, NC*.

ªAquatic.

*Terrestrial.

°In seed.

Link to noxious weed information from

Common names:

• Abyssinian finger grass   (Source: R. P. Ellis, p.c.) – English
  
• African couch grass   (Source: USDA/APHIS ) – English
  

More:

see MMPND for additional names in foreign scripts

Economic importance:

• Weed: also potential seed contaminant   (fide Weed CIBA; F TE Afr)
  

Distributional range:

      Native:

• AFRICA
  Northeast Tropical Africa: Chad; Ethiopia; Sudan
  East Tropical Africa: Kenya; Tanzania; Uganda
  West-Central Tropical Africa: Cameroon; Gabon; Zaire
  West Tropical Africa: Nigeria
  South Tropical Africa: Malawi; Mozambique; Zambia; Zimbabwe
  Southern Africa: Botswana; South Africa - Cape Province, Free State, KwaZulu-Natal, Transvaal
  Western Indian Ocean: Madagascar
• ASIA-TROPICAL
  Indian Subcontinent: Sri Lanka

      Naturalized:

• naturalized elsewhere, including United States

References:

• CIBA-GEIGY, Basel, Switzerland. Documenta CIBA-GEIGY (Grass weeds 1. 1980, 2. 1981; Monocot weeds 3. 1982; Dicot weeds 1. 1988) (Weed CIBA)
• Dassanayake, M. D. & F. R. Fosberg, eds. 1980–. A revised handbook to the flora of Ceylon. (F Ceylon)
• Ellis, R. P. 1997. pers. comm. [re. English common names].
• Exell, A. W. et al., eds. 1960–. Flora zambesiaca. (F Zamb)
• FNA Editorial Committee. 1993–. Flora of North America. (F NAmer)
• Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO). 2010. Ecocrop - on-line resource. (Ecocrop)
• Gibbs-Russell, G. E. et al. 1990. Grasses of southern Africa. Mem. Bot. Surv. S. Africa vol. 58. (Grass SAfr)
• Holm, L. et al. 1979. A geographical atlas of world weeds. (Atlas WWeed)
• Plant Protection and Quarantine Office. United States Department of Agriculture, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. Federal noxious weed list. (USDA/APHIS) [as D. scalarum].
• Porcher, M. H. et al. Searchable World Wide Web Multilingual Multiscript Plant Name Database (MMPND) - on-line resource. (Pl Names)
• Thulin, M., ed. 1993–. Flora of Somalia. (F Somalia)
• Turrill, W. B. et al., eds. 1952–. Flora of tropical East Africa. (F TE Afr)
• Zon, A. P. M. van der. 1992. Graminées du Cameroun. (Grass Camer)

More:

Search AGRICOLA article citation database for citations referencing Digitaria abyssinica.

Search NCBI's Entrez search engine for PubMed citations referencing Digitaria abyssinica. Note: Defaults to a search by genus or species epithet if species binomial not found.

Synonyms:

• (=) Digitaria scalarum (Schweinf.) Chiov.
  (previously associated with 3 accessions)
• (=) Digitaria vestita Fig. & De Not.
  (previously associated with 4 accessions)
• (=) Panicum scalarum Schweinf.
  
• (≡) Syntherisma abyssinicum (Hochst. ex A. Rich.) Newbold
  

Check other databases for Digitaria abyssinica (Hochst. ex A. Rich.) Stapf:

• SIBIS: South African National Biodiversity Institute's (SANBI) Integrated Biodiversity System
• On-line Flora of Zimbabwe
• PLANTS: USDA-NRCS Database of Plants of the United States and its Territories
• CNWG: Catalogue of New World Grasses Searchable Database
• Grass Manual on the Web: Manual of Grasses for North America North of Mexico
• World Grass Species-Descriptions: Morphological species description from Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
• ePIC: Electronic Plant Information Centre of Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
• AGRICOLA: Article Citation Database or NAL Catalog of USDA's National Agricultural Library
• Entrez: NCBI's search engine for PubMed citations, GenBank sequences, etc.
  Note: Defaults to a search by genus or species epithet if species binomial not found.

Images:

• Disseminule drawings: U.S. National Seed Herbarium drawing

More:

• Check PlantSystematics.org for additional images
• Images Note: Be advised that their identity may be inaccurate. Proper identification of a plant may require specialized taxonomic knowledge or comparison with properly documented herbarium material.

Abbreviations & symbols in GRIN Taxonomy

---

| USDA | ARS | GRIN | NPGS | New Search |

---

Cite as:
USDA, ARS, National Genetic Resources Program.
Germplasm Resources Information Network - (GRIN) [Online Database].
National Germplasm Resources Laboratory, Beltsville, Maryland.
URL: http://www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/html/taxon.pl?13989 (09 February 2010)

Please send us your comments

Ctrl P to print