Sacciolepis indica (L.) Chase:
Australia (Oceania)
Burma (Asia)
Brazil (South America)
Cameroon (Africa & Madagascar)
Costa Rica (Mesoamerica)
Ethiopia (Africa & Madagascar)
Guyana (South America)
India (Asia)
Kenya (Africa & Madagascar)
Nicaragua (Mesoamerica)
Papua New Guinea (Asia)
Tanzania (Africa & Madagascar)
Uganda (Africa & Madagascar)
United States (North America)
Caribbean (Caribbean)
South Africa (Africa & Madagascar)
Ecuador (South America)
China (Asia)
Vietnam (Asia)
Thailand (Asia)
Nepal (Asia)
Japan (Asia)
Bhutan (Asia)

Aira spicata L.:
India (Asia)

Panicum microstachyum Lam.:
India (Asia)

Panicum conglomeratum L.:
India (Asia)

Panicum indicum var. oryzetorum Makino:
Japan (Asia)

Panicum angustum Trin.:
Nepal (Asia)

Sacciolepis claviformis B.K. Simon:
Zambia (Africa & Madagascar)

Panicum myuros Lam.:
Brazil (South America)

United States

Origin: Exotic

Regularity: Regularly occurring

Currently: Unknown/Undetermined

Confidence: Confident

Tropical Asia and Australia. Taiwan, in swampy places.

Himalaya (Garhwal, Nepal), south to tropical Asia, Polynesia, Australia. Introduced in Africa & America.

Annuals, Terrestrial, not aquatic, Stems trailing, spreading or prostrate, Stems nodes swollen or brittle, Stems geniculate, decumbent, or lax, sometimes rooting at nodes, Stems caespitose, tufted, or clustered, Stems terete, round in cross section, or polygonal, Stems branching above base or distally at nodes, Stems with inflorescence less than 1 m tall, Stems, culms, or scapes exceeding basal leaves, Leaves mostly cauline, Leaves conspicuously 2-ranked, distichous, Leaves sheathing at base, Leaf sheath mostl y open, or loose, Leaf sheath smooth, glabrous, Leaf sheath and blade differentiated, Leaf blades linear, Leaf blades lanceolate, Leaf blades 2-10 mm wide, Leaf blades mostly flat, Leaf blades mostly glabrous, Leaf blades scabrous, roughened, or wrinkled, Ligule present, Ligule a fringed, ciliate, or lobed membrane, Inflorescence terminal, Inflorescence a contracted panicle, narrowly paniculate, branches appressed or ascending, Inflorescence a dense slender spike-like panicle or raceme, branches contracted, Inflorescence solitary, with 1 spike, fascicle, glomerule, head, or cluster per stem or culm, Inflorescence branches more than 10 to numerous, Flowers bisexual, Spikelets pedicellate, Spikelets laterally compressed, Spikelet less than 3 mm wide, Spikelets with 1 fertile floret, Spikelets solitary at rachis nodes, Spikelets all alike and fertille, Spikelets bisexual, Spikelets disarticulating below the glumes, Rachilla or pedicel glabrous, Glumes present, empty bracts, G lumes 2 clearly present, Glumes distinctly unequal, Glumes equal to or longer than adjacent lemma, Glume equal to or longer than spikelet, Glumes 3 nerved, Glumes 4-7 nerved, Glumes 8-15 nerved, Glume saccate, inflated, or flabellate, Lemma coriaceous, firmer or thicker in texture than the glumes, Lemma becoming indurate, enclosing palea and caryopsis, Lemma 5-7 nerved, Lemma glabrous, Lemma apex truncate, rounded, or obtuse, Lemma awnless, Lemma margins thin, lying flat, Lemma straight, Palea present, well developed, Palea longer than lemma, Palea 2 nerved or 2 keeled, Stamens 3, Styles 2-fid, deeply 2-branched, Stigmas 2, Fruit - caryopsis.

Clum tufted, ca. 60 mm tall, slender or spongy. Blade flat to loosely involute, less than 12 cm long, 2-4 mm wide; sheath slightly keeled, shorter than internode; ligule membranaceous, 0.2-0.5 mm long. Panicle contracted, cylindric, 1-6 cm long; pedicels discoid-tipped. Spikelets ca. 2.5 mm long, more or less papillose-hispid; lower glume ovate, 1/3-2/3 as long as spikelet, 3-7-veined; upper glume narrowly ovate, 9-11-veined; lower lemma equal to upper glume, enclosing a small hyaline lower palea; upper lemma narrowly ovate, acute, pale yellow, ca. 1/2 as long as spikelet; ather ca. 0.7 mm long. Caryopsis ellipsoid, ca. 0.8 mm long, 0.45 mm wide.

The name Aira indica was originally given as "Aira spicata," but this was corrected by Linnaeus in the errata on the final page [1231] of Species Plantarum.

The combination "Sacciolepis indica var. angusta (Trinius) Keng" (Fl. Ill. Pl. Prim. Sin. Gram. 662. 1959) was not validly published because a full and direct reference to the basionym was not provided.

Annual. Culms slender, weakly ascending from a branching, decumbent base, 20–100 cm tall. Leaf sheaths slightly keeled; leaf blades linear, flat to loosely involute, 5–20 × 0.2–0.5 cm, apex acute; ligule 0.2–0.5 mm. Panicle spikelike, 11–16 × 0.3–0.5 cm, axis glabrous. Spikelets green or purplish green, lanceolate, laterally compressed, 2–2.8 mm, glabrous or papillose-hispid, obtuse; glumes ovate, herbaceous with broad hyaline margins and apex, lower glume 1/3–1/2 spikelet length, 3–7-veined; upper glume 7–11-veined; lower lemma as long as upper glume; palea small and hyaline; upper lemma yellowish, narrowly ovate, 1/2 spikelet length. Fl. and fr. Jul–Nov. 2n = 18.

200-2100 m

Aira indica L., Sp. Pl. 63. 1753.
 Panicum indicum (L.) L. var. oryzetorum Makino, Bot. Mag. (Tokyo) 27: 28. 1913. 
 Sacciolepis indica var. oryzetorum (Makino) Ohwi, Bull. Tokyo Sci. Mus. 18: 3. 1947; Hsu, Fl. Taiwan 5: 598. 1978.

Aira indica Linnaeus, Sp. Pl. 1: 63 ["spicata"], errata [1231, "indicum"]. 1753; Panicum angustum Trinius; Saccio-lepis angusta (Trinius) Stapf; S. spicata Honda ex Masamune, nom. illeg. superfl.

Isotype for Sacciolepis glabra Santos
Collection: Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of Natural History, Department of Botany
Verification Degree: Card file verified by examination of alleged type specimen
Preparation: Pressed specimen
Collector(s): L. Ebalo
Year Collected: 1939
Locality: Masalay, Wawan & Dimaraga Mts., Mindoro Island, Philippines, Asia-Tropical

Moist places, valleys, streams. Anhui, Fujian, Guangdong, Guizhou, Hainan, Heilongjiang, Henan, Hubei, Jiangxi, Shandong, Sichuan, Taiwan, Yunnan, Zhejiang [Bhutan, India, Japan, Myanmar, Nepal, Thailand, Vietnam; Africa, Australia, Pacific Islands].

Barcode of Life Data Systems (BOLDS) Stats
Public Records: 2
Species: 6
Species With Barcodes: 1

United States

Rounded National Status Rank: NNA - Not Applicable

Rounded Global Status Rank: GNR - Not Yet Ranked