Bearded Sprangletop

It is usually found in littoral regions.

Buffaloes are very fond of this grass.

Culm tufted. Blade linear, needle-like, about 12 cm long by 1 mm wide; ligule hyaline, about 2 mm long, tongue-shaped. Inflorescence a contracted panicle, about 10 cm long. Spikelets several-flowered, shortly pedicelled, about 6 mm long by 2-2.2 mm wide; glumes chartaceous, conspicuously 1-nerved, lanceolate, acute; lowest lemma chartaceous, 3-5 mm long, broadly lanceolate, 3-nerved, 2-toothed, margins inrolled, basal part with short silky hairs; midrib prolonged into a short awn of about 1.5 mm long; palea elliptical, chartaceous, 2-keeled, siliceous on keels; anther about 0.5 mm long. Caryopsis about 2 mm long; embryo 1/3 the length of the caryopsis.

Aquatic or semi-aquatic rhizomatous perennial; culms 60-150 cm high, rooting and branching from the lower nodes. Leaf-blades tough, linear with filiform tips, 25-55 cm long, up to 5 mm wide, inrolled or rarely flat, scabrid, grey-green with a broad white central nerve. Inflorescence 20-35 cm long; racemes 10-30, slender, 7-15 cm long, more or less straight. Spikelets 6-11-flowered; narrowly elliptic to elliptic, 8-15 mm long, slightly overlapping, grey-green or olive-green; glumes keeled, scabrid on the keels, the lower lanceolate to narrowly lanceolate, 2.1-4.6 mm long, acute or acuminate, the upper narrowly oblong, 3.3-7.4 mm long, acute or obtuse and minutely mucronate; lemmas narrowly oblong, 3.2-5.9 mm long, pilose on the lower part of the nerves, 2- or more toothed and mucronate or shortly awned from the sinus (the awn 0.3-1.6 mm long). Caryopsis dorso-ventrally flattened.

Widely distributed in India, extending to Egypt and Tropical and South Africa through Southeast Asia to Australia.

Distribution: Pakistan (Sind & Punjab); tropical and subtropical regions of the Old World and Australia.

Fl. & Fr. Per. March-November.

Festuca fusca L., Sp. Pl. ed. 2. 109. 1763.
Leptochloa fusca (L.) Kunth, Rev. Gram. l: 91. 1829; Honda, Monogr. Poac. Jap. 148. 1930.
Triodia formosana Honda, Bot. Mag. Tokyo 41: 12. 1927, Monogr. Poac. Jap. 114. 1930.

fusca: greyish-brown or dark greyish-brown, fuscous

Perennials, Terrestrial, not aquatic, 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 compressed, flattened, or sulcate, Stems branching above base or distally at nodes, Stem internodes hollow, Stems with inflorescence less than 1 m tall, Stems with inflorescence 1-2 m tall, Stems, culms, or scapes exceeding basal leaves, Leaves mostly cauline, Leaves conspicuously 2-ranked, distic hous, Leaves sheathing at base, Leaf sheath mostly open, or loose, Leaf sheath smooth, glabrous, Leaf sheath and blade differentiated, Leaf blades linear, Leaf blades 2-10 mm wide, Leaf blades mostly flat, Leaf blade margins folded, involute, or conduplicate, Leaf blades mostly glabrous, Leaf blades scabrous, roughened, or wrinkled, Ligule present, Ligule an unfringed eciliate membrane, Ligule a fringed, ciliate, or lobed membrane, Inflorescence terminal, Inflorescence solitary, with 1 spike, fascicle, glomerule, head, or cluster per stem or culm, Inflorescence a panicle with narrowly racemose or spicate branches, Inflorescence branches more than 10 to numerous, Inflorescence branches 1-sided, Flowers bisexual, Spikelets sessile or subsessile, Spikelets laterally compressed, Spikelet less than 3 mm wide, Spikelets with 8-40 florets, Spikelets solitary at rachis nodes, Spikelets all alike and fertille, Spikelets bisexual, Spikelets disarticulating above the glumes, glumes per sistent, Spikelets disarticulating beneath or between the florets, Spikelets secund, in rows on one side of rachis, Rachilla or pedicel glabrous, Glumes present, empty bracts, Glumes 2 clearly present, Glumes distinctly unequal, Glumes shorter than adjacent lemma, Glumes keeled or winged, Glumes 1 nerved, Lemmas thin, chartaceous, hyaline, cartilaginous, or membranous, Lemma 3 nerved, Lemma body or surface hairy, Lemma apex dentate, 2-fid, Lemma awnless, Lemma mucronate, very shortly beaked or awned, less than 1-2 mm, Lemma straight, Palea present, well developed, Palea membranous, hyaline, Palea about equal to lemma, Palea 2 nerved or 2 keeled, Stamens 1, Stamens 2, Stamens 3, Styles 2-fid, deeply 2-branched, Stigmas 2, Fruit - caryopsis.

Diplachne fusca, called bearded sprangletop, is a widespread species of grass in the genus Diplachne, native to North America, the Caribbean, South America, Africa, Asia, and Australia, and introduced in Europe, New Zealand and Hawaii, among other places. It prefers to live in salty, wet conditions, such as in salt marshes and shallow depressions.