Brachiaria dictyoneura (Fig. & De Not.) Stapf

Global description

Brachiaria dictyoneura is a vivacious grass with stolons and rhizomes, without rooting from the lower nodes. The culms are geniculate ascending or decumbent. The ligule is ciliated. The leaf blade is linear or lanceolate. The inflorescence is composed of a few one-sided racemes. The spikelets are solitary and elliptical, slightly compressed dorsally on the raceme.

First leaves

Seedlings are very rare. Le leaf blade of seedling is wider than adult leaves. The prefoliation is rolled.

General habit

Brachiaria dictyoneura is a stoloniferous and rhizomatous vivacious grass, growing up to 100 cm high.

Underground system

Fasciculated roots and stolons. There are no nodal roots or lower node rooting. There are two types of rhizomes. Short rhizomes giving rise to nearby stems (cespitose development) and thin, long rhizomes giving rise to new plants at a distance from the first clump.

Culm

Culms are geniculate ascending, or decumbent, sub-cylindrical, reaching 40 to 100 cm in length.

Leaf

The sheath is cylindrical, with a glabrous surface and margin, shorter than the corresponding internode. The ligule is ciliated, 0.5 mm high. The leaf blade can have two forms:
- The blade of new individuals from stolons or rhizomes is lanceolate, 10 mm wide.
- The leaf blade of older, fully grown individuals is linear to narrowly lanceolate, 10-30 cm long and 3-5 mm wide, with a trough-shaped and relatively rigid section. The base is straight, the apex long tapering to a point, the margin entire or finely serrated, both sides glabrous and light green.

Inflorescence

The inflorescence is a simple panicle, 8-10 cm long, composed of 2-3(-4) racemes 2-7 cm long, borne unilaterally along a central axis 2-13 cm long, which extends slightly above the last raceme. The rachis is trigonal or narrowly winged, angular, 1 mm wide and finely denticulate. Slight pubescence at the base of each raceme.

Spikelet

The spikelet arrangement is adaxial and regular in 2 rows. Spikelets are solitary, elliptic, sub-sessile with a few hairs at the base of the pedicel, elliptic-oval, slightly compressed dorsally, sub-acute, 4-6 mm long, pubescent or rarely glabrous. Each spikelet has 1 basal sterile and 1 upper fertile flower, without extension of the rachillet. The internodes of the rachillet are elongated between the glumes.
The glumes are similar, 0.75-1 times the length of the spikelet, oblong, membranous, without a carina, pubescent or hairless, obtuse at the apex. The lower glume has 11 veins while the upper glume has 5-9 veins.
The basal sterile floret is male. The lemma is similar to the upper glume, the same length as the spikelet, oblong, membranous, 5-veined and cross-veined, glabrous or pubescent, obtuse. The palea is present, hyaline. The upper floret is fertile, with an elliptic lemma, 3.5-5.5 mm long, indurated, without a carina. The surface of the lemma is papillose. The margins of the lemma are enveloping, the apex is obtuse or acute. The palea is involuted, indurated, without a carina.
At maturity the spikelet is falling entire.

Grain

The grain is obovate, light-coloured.

Origin

Brachiaria dictyoneura is native to Central (Nigeria) and Eastern Africa.

Worldwide distribution

This species has been widely introduced as a forage species in the USA (Florida), the Caribbean, tropical Central and South America, as well as in Asia (Laos, New Guinea), Australia and the south-west Pacific (Fiji, Solomon Islands).

https://www.gbif.org/species/2704070