Digitaria mollicoma (Kunth) Henrard

Digitaria magna is an inadequately known entity which may be synonymous with D. mollicoma. Syntherisma hayatae var. magna was described from Taiwan, but the protologue is not sufficient to establish its identity.

Annuals; culms ascending, weak, 20-50 cm high. Blade more less soft hairy, 2-7 cm long, 1-5 mm wide, base rounded or cordate; ligule membranaceous, 0.5-1 mm long; sheath keeled, usually shorter than internode, loose. Racemes 2-4, 2-7 cm long, digitately arranged; rachis undulate, 0.8-1.1 mm wide, with green, serrulate wings, midrib white, marginal wings broader than midrib. Spikelets elliptic, 1.7- 2.3 mm long, paired on each node, with 2-3 well developed spikelets; pedicels paired, cylindrical or slightly compressed and scabrous; lower glume small or absent, veinless, membranaceous; upper glume subequal to spikelet, 3-veined, intervein spaces and margins covered with clavate hairs; lower lemma also covered with clavate hairs along interveins and margins, 5-veined; upper floret blackish brown when mature.

Short-lived perennial, stoloniferous and mat-forming. Culms slender, flowering shoots ascending, 20–50 cm tall. Leaf sheaths glabrous to pilose; leaf blades linear-lanceolate, 2–6 × 0.3–0.5 cm, glabrous to pilose, short and patent on the stolons, longer and softer on the flowering shoots; ligule 1–2 mm. Inflorescence digitate; racemes 2–3(–5), 3–9 cm; spikelets ternate; rachis ribbonlike, winged, ca. 1 mm broad, margins scabrous; pedicels usually terete, smooth, tips discoid. Spikelets elliptic, 1.7–2.3 mm, hairs smooth or verrucose; lower glume absent or nearly so; upper glume as long as or slightly shorter than spikelet, 3–5-veined, pilose; lower lemma as long as spikelet, with 7 equidistant, rather prominent veins, pilose; upper lemma yellow to pale brown at maturity. Anthers 0.5–0.9 mm. Fl. and fr. Aug–Oct.

Endemic to Taiwan, growing on dry sandy soils near seashore.

Anhui, Fujian, Jiangxi, Taiwan, Zhejiang [Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines; Pacific Islands].

Dry sandy soils, near seashores; below 1200 m.

Paspalum mollicomum Kunth, Enum. Pl. 1: 47. 1833.

Paspalum mollicomum Kunth, Enum. Pl. 1: 47. 1833; Digitaria hayatae (Honda) Honda ex Ohwi; ?D. magna (Honda) Tuyama; Panicum hayatae (Honda) Makino & Nemoto (1925), not A. Camus (1923); ?P. hayatae var. magnum (Honda) Makino & Nemoto; Syntherisma hayatae Honda; ?S. haya-tae var. magna Honda; ?S. magna (Honda) Honda.