Pseudechinolaena polystachya (Kunth) Stapf

Culms slender, stoloniferous, rooting and forming a loose mat, up to 50 cm tall. Leaf sheaths usually shorter than the internodes; leaf blades lanceolate, thin, 2–8 × 0.6–1.2 cm, glabrous or hispidulous, apex acute or acuminate; ligule 1–2 mm. Inflorescence narrow, 5–15 cm, bearing 3–5 loosely ascending racemes with distant spikelet pairs, lowest raceme 1–4 cm; pedicels 1–2 mm. Spikelets 4–5 mm; glumes papery, the lower lanceolate, 3-veined, acuminate, the upper thicker, navicular, 7-veined, with tubercle-based hooks between the veins; lower lemma 7-veined; upper lemma subcoriaceous, ca. 3 mm, pale, glossy. Caryopsis fusiform, ca. 2.5 mm, acute. Fl. and fr. Sep–Oct. 2n = 36.

Tropical regions of Old & New Worlds.

1300-2000 m

Forest shade. Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan, Xizang, Yunnan [throughout the tropics].

Echinolaena polystachya Kunth, Nov. Gen. Sp. 1: 119. 1816; Panicum heteranthum Link; P. uncinatum Raddi.

polystachya: with many spikes

Echinolaena polystachya H. B. K. Nov. Gen. & Sp. 1 : 119. 1815
Panicum uncinalum Raddi, Agrost. Bras. 41. 1823.
Panicum heieranihwm Link, Hort. Berol. 1 : 212. 1827.
Panicum glandulosum Nees, Agrost. Bras. 128. 1829.
Echinolaena Trinii ZoW, & Mor,; Moritzi, Syst. Verz. Zoll. 102. 1846.
Stems up to 8 dm. long, prostrate and branching at the base and rooting at the lower nodes; leaf-sheaths hispid; blades up to 8 cm. long, 1.5 cm. wide, flat, ovate-lanceolate to elliptic, acuminate, hispid; inflorescence up to 1 dm. long, of several rather distant erect or ascending racemes 1-3 cm. long; spikelets 3.5-4 mm. long.
Type locality: On the banks of the Magdalena River, between Tenerife and Zambrano, Colombia.
Distribution : Southern Mexico to Brazil.

Nazia aliena (Spreng.) Scribn. Bull. U. S. Dep. Agr
Agrost. 17 : 28. 1899.
Lappago racemosa H.B.K. Nov. Gen. & Sp. 1 : 119. 1815. Not L. racemosa Willd. 1798.
Lappago aliena Spreng. Neue Kntdeck. 3 : 15. 1822.
Tragus alienus Schultes ; R. & S. Syst. Veg. Mant. 2 : 205. 1824.
Tragus Berteronianus Schultes, in R. & S. Syst, Veg. Mant. 2 : 205. 1824.
Tragus occidentalis Nees, Agrost. Eras. 286. 1829.
Nazia occidentalis Scribn. Zoe 4 : 386. 1894.
Nazia racemosa aliena Scribn. & Sm. Bull. U. S. Dep. Agr. Agrost. 4 : 12. 1897.
Stems tufted, up to 3 dm. tall, often rooting at the lower nodes and there sending up tufts of erect branches; leaf-sheaths smooth and glabrous; blades up to 8 cm. long, usually shorter, 2-4 mm. wide, flat, or involute on the cilia te margins, otherwise glabrous; inflorescence up to 1 dm. long, usually 6 cm. or less, often included at the base; spikelets numerous, 2-3 mm. long, the second scale with the spines 0.5 mm. long or less, the stout swollen opaque base longer than the translucent more slender apex.
Type locality : Brazil.
Distribution : Southern and western Texas to Arizona and northern Mexico, and throughout tropical America ; occasional as a waif or adventive in the eastern United States.