To a British botanist, digitate grasses look highly exotic. They bring to mind Serengeti, and migrating herds of Wildebeest. The simplest way to get started is to put your specimen into one of the 4 categories below:
Paired fingers join the rachis at the same spot, and represent the simplest of the digitate grasses. Paspalum distichum (right) is a classic example.
Digitate finger grasses have 3 or more fingers joining the rachis at the same spot (or very close together). The most familiar example is Cynodon dactylon.
Semi-digitate species have one or more fingers joining the rachis below the point at which the uppermost fingers originate. Eleusine is an important genus with inflorescences of this type
Finally, the fingers may be spaced out along the rachis, step-like. Brachiaria is a big genus with inflorescences of this type
As with all unfamiliar plants, working out the genus is the most difficult part. The plan is to go through each of these four inflorescence groups, highlight the commonest genera in the UK alien grass flora, and explain how to tell them apart.
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