Eleusine coracana africana

• Common Names
• Description
• Biology
• Taxonomy
• Similar Species
• More Info
• Further Reading
• Notes

Common Names

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Description

Family Poaceae

Annual or perennial herbs, or tall woody bamboos . Flowering stems (culms ) jointed , internodes hollow or solid; branches arising singly from nodes and subtended by a leaf sheath and 2-keeled prophyll, often fascicled in bamboos. Leaves arranged alternately in 2 ranks , differentiated into sheath, blade , and an adaxial erect appendage at sheath/blade junction (ligule) ; leaf sheath surrounding and supporting culm-internode, split to base or infrequently tubular with partially or completely fused margins , modified with reduced blade in bamboos (culm sheaths) ; leaf blades divergent, usually long, narrow and flat, but varying from inrolled and filiform to ovate , veins parallel, sometimes with cross-connecting veinlets (especially in bamboos) ; ligule membranous or a line of hairs . Inflorescence terminal or axillary , an open, contracted , or spikelike panicle, or composed of lax to spikelike racemes arranged along an elongate central axis, or digitate, paired , or occasionally solitary; axillary inflorescences often many, subtended by spatheoles (specialized bladeless leaf sheaths) and gathered into a leafy compound panicle; spikelets often aggregated into complex clusters in bamboos. Spikelets composed of distichous bracts arranged along a slender axis (rachilla) ; typically 2 lowest bracts (glumes ) empty, subtending 1 to many florets ; glumes often poorly differentiated from accompanying bracts in bamboos. Florets composed of 2 opposing bracts enclosing a single small flower, outer bract (lemma) clasping the more delicate, usually 2-keeled inner bract (palea) ; base of floret often with thickened prolongation articulated with rachilla (callus) ; lemma often with apical or dorsal bristle (awn ), glumes also sometimes awned . Flowers bisexual or unisexual ; lodicules (small scales representing perianth) 2, rarely 3 or absent, 3 to many in bamboos, hyaline or fleshy ; stamens 3 rarely 1, 2, 6, or more in some bamboos, hypogynous, filaments capillary , anthers versatile; ovary 1-celled, styles (1 or) 2(rarely 3), free or united at base, topped by feathery stigmas, exserted from sides or apex of floret. Fruit normally a dry indehiscent caryopsis with thin pericarp firmly adherent to seed, pericarp rarely free, fleshy in some bamboos; embryo small or large; hilum punctate to linear .

About 700 genera and 11,000 species: widely distributed in all regions of the world.[1]

Genus Eleusine

Annuals or tussocky perennials . Culms compressed . Leaf sheaths strongly keeled ; leaf blades linear , usually folded; ligule membranous, usually with a ciliate fringe . Inflorescence of digitate or subdigitate spikelike racemes clustered at the top of the culm; racemes with closely imbricate, biseriate spikelets , terminating in a fertile spikelet. Spikelets laterally compressed , florets several, disarticulating between the florets (except the cultivated species E. coracana) ; glumes shorter than lemmas, persistent , 1-3(-7) -veined, keeled, awnless; lemmas membranous, 3-veined, glabrous , strongly keeled, keel thickened with 1-3 closely spaced additional veins, obtuse or acute. Grain ellipsoid to subglobose, trigonous in section , ornamented, pericarp free . x = 9. Fl. and fr. Jul-Sep.

Nine species: mostly in E and NE tropical Africa, one species a pantropical weed and one cultivated as a cereal; two species (one introduced ) in China.

Eleusine, Acrachne, and Dactyloctenium form a group of closely related genera, remarkable for their unusual, ornamented grains enclosed within a free pericarp, which is easily removed when soaked in a drop of water.[2]

Physical Description

Habitat

Typically found at an altitude of 0 to 3,086 meters (0 to 10,125 feet).[3]

Biology

Reproduction

Duration: Annual

Taxonomy

Notes

Name Status: Accepted Name . Latest taxonomic scrutiny: 15-Mar-2000

Place of publication : Fruct. sem. pl. 1:8. 1788

Name verified on 07-May-1992 by ARS Systematic Botanists. Last updated: 31-Oct-2001

Similar Species

Members of the genus Eleusine

ZipcodeZoo has pages for 107 species, subspecies, varieties, forms, and cultivars in this genus. Here are just 100 of them:

E. aegyptia · E. aegyptiaca · E. aegyptica · E. africana · E. arabica · E. aristata · E. barbata · E. barcinonensis · E. blepharoglumis · E. brevifolia · E. caespitosa · E. calycina · E. caracana · E. cerealis · E. chinensis · E. ciliata · E. compressa · E. conglomerata · E. coracan · E. coracana · E. coracana africana (African Finger Millet) · E. coracana 'Green Cat' (Finger Millet) · E. coracana subsp. africana (African Finger Millet) · E. coracana coracana · E. corocana · E. cruciata · E. dagussa · E. digitaria · E. digitata · E. distachya · E. distans · E. domingensis · E. dura · E. elongata · E. erythrosperma · E. falcata · E. filiformis · E. flagellifera · E. floccifolia · E. geminata · E. glabra · E. glaucophylla · E. gonantha · E. gouini · E. gracilis · E. inaequalis · E. indica (Wire Grass Eleusine Indica) · E. indica africana · E. indica subsp. coracana · E. indica var. brachystachya · E. indica var. geminata · E. indica var. major · E. indica var. monostachya · E. intermedia · E. italica · E. jaegeri · E. japonica · E. juncea · E. kigeziensis · E. lagopoides · E. leucosperma · E. lima · E. longaspica · E. luco · E. macrosperma · E. macrostachya · E. marginata · E. mucronata · E. multiflora · E. obtusiflora · E. oligostachya · E. ovalis · E. pectinata · E. penicillata · E. pilosa · E. poaeflora · E. polydactyla · E. polystachya · E. procera · E. prostrata · E. racemosa · E. radulans · E. reniformis · E. rigida · E. rigidifolia · E. robecchii · E. scabra · E. scindica · E. semisterilis · E. somalensis · E. somaliensis · E. sparsa · E. sphaerosperma · E. stolonifera · E. stricta · E. tenerrima · E. textilis · E. tocussa · E. tristachia · E. tristachya (Three-Spike Goosegrass)

More Info

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Further Reading

• FNA Editorial Committee. 1993–. Flora of North America. (F NAmer)
• Gibbs-Russell, G. E. et al. 1990. Grasses of southern Africa. Mem. Bot. Surv. S. Africa vol. 58. (Grass SAfr)
• Hilu, K. W. & J. M. J. de Wet. 1976. Domestication of Eleusine coracana. Econ. Bot. 30:199–208.
• Hilu, K. W. et al. 1979. Archaeobotanical studies of Eleusine coracana ssp. coracana (Finger millet). Amer. J. Bot. 66:330–333.
• PROTABASE, the information base of PROTA (Plant Resources of Tropical Africa) - on-line resource. (PROTABASE)
• Porcher, M. H. et al. Searchable World Wide Web Multilingual Multiscript Plant Name Database (MMPND) - on-line resource. (Pl Names)
• Thulin, M., ed. 1993–. Flora of Somalia. (F Somalia)
• Turrill, W. B. et al., eds. 1952–. Flora of tropical East Africa. (F TE Afr) [mentions].
• Zon, A. P. M. van der. 1992. Graminées du Cameroun. (Grass Camer)
• de Wet, J. M. J. et al. 1984. Systematics and evolution of Eleusine coracana (Gramineae). Amer. J. Bot. 71:550–557.
• Chen Shouliang, Jin Yuexing, Zhuang Tide, Fang Wenzhe, Sheng Guoying, Liu Liang, Wu Zhenlan, Lu Shenglian, Sun Bisin, Hu Zhihao, Wang Song, Sun Xiangzhong, Wang Huiqin, Yang Xilin, Wang Chaopin, Li Binggui & Wen Shaobin. 1990. Gramineae (Poaceae) (4). In: Chen Shouliang, ed., Fl. Reipubl. Popularis Sin. 10(1):1401
• Chen Shouliang, Zhuang Tide, Fang Wenzhe, Sheng Guoying, Jin Yuexing, Liu Liang, Sun Bisin, Hu Zhihao & Wang Song. 1997. Gramineae (Poaceae) (5). In: Chen Shouliang, ed., Fl. Reipubl. Popularis Sin. 10(2): 1301
• Liu Liang, Zhu Taiping, Chen Wenli, Wu Zhenlan & Lu Shenglian. Gramineae (Poaceae) (2). In: Liu Liang, ed., Fl. Reipubl. Popularis Sin. 9(2): 1405
• Lu Sheng-lian, Sun Yong-hua, Liu Shang-wu, Yang Yong-chang, Wu Zhen-lan, Kuo Pen-chao, Yang Hsi-ling, Wang Chao-pin & Tsui Nai-ran. 1987. Gramineae (3). In: Kuo Pen-chao, ed., Fl. Reipubl. Popularis Sin. 9(3): 1329
• Wang Zhengping, Ye Guanghan, Yang Yaling, Yu Zehua, Hu Chenhua, Geng Bojie, Feng Xuelin, Jia Liangzhi, Xia Nianhe, Li Dezhu, Zhang Weiping, Xue Jiru, Zhu Zhengde, Zhao Qiseng, Chen Shouliang, Sheng Guoying, Chen Shaoyun, Yao Changyu, Lu Jionglin, Sun Jiliang, Lin Wantao, Yi Tongpei, Zhao Huiru, Wen Taihui & Dai Qihui. 1996. Gramineae (Poaceae) (1).

Notes

Contributors

• Bisby, F.A., Y.R. Roskov, M.A. Ruggiero, T.M. Orrell, L.E. Paglinawan, P.W. Brewer, N. Bailly, J. van Hertum, eds (2007). Species 2000 & ITIS Catalogue of Life: 2007 Annual Checklist. Species 2000: Reading, U.K.
• Brands, S.J. (comp.) 1989-2006. Systema Naturae 2000. The Taxonomicon. Universal Taxonomic Services, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Accessed October 5, 2006.
• Global Biodiversity Information Facility. Accessed November 19, 2007. http://www.gbif.org Mediated distribution data from 9 providers.
• USDA, ARS, National Genetic Resources Program. Germplasm Resources Information Network - (GRIN) [Online Database]. National Germplasm Resources Laboratory, Beltsville, Maryland. URL (April 27, 2008)

Identifiers

• Biodiversity Heritage Library NamebankID: 8287794
• Catalogue of Life Accepted Name Code: ITS-524027
• Global Biodiversity Information Facility Taxonkey: 13901736
• Globally Unique Identifier: urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:979521-1
• Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS) Taxonomic Serial Number (TSN): 41691
• U.S.D.A. Plant Symbol: ELCO3
• Zipcode Zoo Species Identifier: 3728510

Footnotes

1. Shou-liang Chen, De-Zhu Li, Guanghua Zhu, Zhenlan Wu, Sheng-lian Lu, Liang Liu, Zheng-ping Wang, Bi-xing Sun, Zheng-de Zhu, Nianhe Xia, Liang-zhi Jia, Zhenhua Guo, Wenli Chen, Xiang Chen, Yang Guangyao, Sylvia M. Phillips, Chris Stapleton, Robert J. Soreng, Susan G. Aiken, Nikolai N. Tzvelev, Paul M. Peterson, Stephen A. Renvoize, Marina V. Olonova & Klaus Ammann "Poaceae". in Flora of China Vol. 22. Published by Science Press (Beijing) and Missouri Botanical Garden Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]
2. Shou-liang Chen & Sylvia M. Phillips "Eleusine". in Flora of China Vol. 22 Page 458, 481. Published by Science Press (Beijing) and Missouri Botanical Garden Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]
3. Mean = 965.940 meters (3,169.094 feet), Standard Deviation = 387.270 based on 347 observations. Altitude information for each observation from British Oceanographic Data Centre. [back]

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