Kleberg's Bluestem

This is a very excellent fodder grass which is sought out by stock from a mixture of grasses and eaten in preference to all others.

Dichanthium annulatum is morphologically and cytologically very variable. For details of its variation see Mehra & Celarier in Proc. Okla. Acad. Sci. 38: 22-25.1958; Mehra in Fyton 17:157-166. 1961; and Mehra in Caryologia 17:545-556. 1964. The species is an excellent fodder grass eagerly sought by stock.

Culm tufted, about 1 mm in diameter, hard, nodes densely covered with silky hairs. Blade 8-10 cm long by 3-4 mm wide, surface covered with tubercle based silky hairs; ligule chartaceous, about 1 mm long, upper margin fimbriate. Inflorescence of digitate racemes, racemes 2-8, up to 5 cm long, pale purple in color. Spikelets paired, the upper ones pedicelled; the lower ones sessile, about 3 mm long. Lower glume oblong, chartaceous, as long as the spikelet, 5-nerved, lower argins inrolled, upper part 2-keeled, with long tubercled hairs along keels, lower back ciliate; upper glume chartaceous, lanceolate, margins inrolled, fimbriate, backside 1-keeled, 3-nerved; lemma linear, 1-nerved, tipped with a long flexuous awn arising from the apex, about 6 times the length of the lemma; palea oblong, hyaline, about 2.5 mm long, nerveless; anther about 1.8 mm long; lodicules 2, truncate, conspicuously several-nerved, about 0.3 mm long. Widely distributed in India, Burma, Tropical and North Africa, now introduced as a fodder in many countries.

Perennial; culms 25-100 cm high, geniculately ascending. Leaf-blades 3-30 cm long, 2-7 mm wide. Inflorescence composed of (1-) 2-15 subdigitate shortly peduncled racemes, the peduncles glabrous; racemes 3-7 cm long, the spikelets subimbricate with 0-6 smaller homogamous pairs at the base; internodes and pedicels solid. Sessile spikelet narrowly oblong, 2-6 mm long; lower glume firmly cartilaginous, slightly concave, pubescent to villous below the middle with long bulbous-based hairs on the margins above, obtuse to subacute; awn 8-25 mm long.

Perennial. Culms tufted, erect or sometimes straggling, 30–100 cm tall, nodes bearded with spreading hairs. Leaf sheaths terete, shorter than internodes; leaf blades flat, 8–30 × 0.2–0.4 cm, glabrous or adaxial surface stiffly pilose, margins smooth or scaberulous, apex acuminate; ligule 1–2 mm, lacerate. Inflorescence terminal; peduncle glabrous; racemes 2–8, subdigitate, suberect, 4–5 cm, with 0–6 pairs of homogamous spikelets. Sessile spikelet 3–5 mm; lower glume elliptic-oblong or oblong, firmly papery, 5–9-veined, subglabrous or pubescent to villous on lower back, upper flanks often with long spreading hairs, keels shortly ciliate, not or barely winged, apex obtuse; upper glume ciliate along keel and margins, apex acute or obtuse; awn 1.6–2.4 cm. Caryopsis obovate. Pedicelled spikelet many-veined, pubescent to villous with spreading tubercle-based hairs. Fl. and fr. Jun–Nov. 2n = 20, 40.

Tropical & N. Africa, Nepal, India, Burma.

Distribution: Pakistan (Sind, Baluchistan, Punjab, N.W.FY. & Kashmir); Kenya, Tanzania and Senegal, through the Middle East to Indonesia; introduced to southern Africa, Tropical America and Australia.

Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hainan, Hubei, Sichuan, Taiwan, Yunnan [India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines; Africa, Pacific Islands; introduced in America and Australia].

150-1100 m

Fl. & Fr. Per.: March-November.

Mountain slopes, disturbed ground; 100–2200 m.

Andropogon annulatus Forsk., Fl. Aegypt. Arab. 173. 1775.

Andropogon annulatus Forsskål, Fl. Aegypt.-Arab. 173. 1775; Bothriochloa tuberculata W. Z. Fang; Dichanthium annulatum var. bullisetosum B. S. Sun & S. Wang.