Cynodon dactylon L.

 

Poaceae (Grass Family)

 

Europe

 

Bermuda Grass

 

Devil Grass

                                       September Photo

 

Plant Characteristics:  Creeping perennial; culms flattened, wiry, glabrous, from tough woody scaly rhizomes, the flowering culms erect, 1-4 dm. long; ligule a conspicuous ring of white hairs; blades flat, glabrous or pilose on upper surface, mostly 1-3 cm. long, with 5 primary nerves; spikes 4-5, 2-5 cm. long; spikelets imbricate, 2 mm. long, the acute lemmas boat-shaped, pubescent on keel, 3-nerved, the lateral nerves near the margin.

 

Habitat:  Common weed forming very tough sod in waste and low places (fields, lawns, orchards, etc.) through much of the state; to Ore., s. states; warm regions of both hemis.  June-Aug.

 

Name:  Greek, kuon, dog, and odous, tooth, because of hard scales on rhizomes.  (Munz, Flora So. Calif. 959).  Greek, daktylos, finger.  (Jaeger 293).  John Johnson suggests that the species name refers to the finger-like branches of the inflorescence.

 

General:  Occasional in the study area.  Photographed along Back Bay Dr. at the north end of Eastbluff.  The 5 primary leaf nerves described in Munz are not evident to me or to John Johnson; all of the nerves appear equal to us.  (my comments).      Sometimes used as a lawn grass, but mostly brown and unsightly in winter.  Named after the Bermuda Islands.  Drought resistant and tolerant of alkali.  One of the most troublesome weeds in Calif.  (Robbins et al. 68).      Bermuda Grass produces contact dermatitis, and its pollen is an important cause of hay fever.  In some parts of the U.S., cattle grazing on Bermuda Grass have on occasion developed three diseases: photosensitization; paralysis known locally as "Bermuda Grass poisoning"; and a nervous disease characterized by muscular twitching and eventually inability to stand.  None of these diseases has been recorded for California.  (Fuller 293).    About 10 species of warmer regions.  (Munz, Flora So. Calif. 959).       In the southern United States, the larvae of the Fiery Skipper butterfly, Hylephila phyleus and the Sachem butterfly, Atalopedes campestris, feed on Bermuda grass.  (No author, sbnature, A Journal of the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History.  Spring 2004/Vol. 2, No. 1, 6-8).

 

Text Ref:  Munz, Flora So. Calif. 959; Roberts 46.

Photo Ref:  Oct 1 83 # 6,7.

Identity: by R. De Ruff.

First Found:  October 1983.

 

Computer Ref:  Plant Data 43.

Have plant specimen.

Last edit 10/18/04.

 

                                        September Photo