Leptochloa uninervia (Presl) Hitchc. & Chase   =Diplachne uninervia   =Megastachya uninervia   Poaceae (Grass Family)   Native & South America   Mexican Strangle-Top   Strangle-Top

                               July Photo

Plant Characteristics:  Annual, culms, erect, simple or sparingly branched, 3-10 dm. tall, glabrous; sheaths glabrous; blades firm, flat or loosely involute, scabrous, attenuate, 1-4.5 dm. long, 1-4 mm. wide; panicle 1-3 dm. long, oblong; spikes numerous, approximate, usually stiffly ascending but sometimes ascending-spreading, the lower ones 4-9 cm. long, the upper ones gradually shorter and closer together; spikelets lead colored, 6 to 9 flowered, 5-7 mm. long, appressed; first glume narrow, acute, 1-1.5 mm. long, the second one much broader, abruptly acute or obtuse, mucronate; lemmas awnless, 2-3 mm. long, abruptly subacute or obtuse, minutely lobed, apiculate, the lateral nerves more or less excurrent, the margins pubescent near the base.

Habitat:  Moist, +/- alkaline places, many plant communities; desert and cismontane, mostly below 2000 ft., occasional to 7000 ft.; to Ore., Atlantic Coast, S. Am.  March-Dec.

Name:  Greek, leptos, slender, and chloa, grass, because of the slender spikes.  (Munz, Flora So. Calif. 979).   Latin, unus, one and nervus, nerve.  (Jaeger 165,276).  The species name may be due to the excurrent nerves of the lemmas. (my comment).

General:  Occasional in the study area.  Photographed on North Star Beach and along Back Bay Dr. at the seep before the road terminates into Eastbluff Dr.  (my comments).      The seeds are readily spread by irrigation water, such as in rice paddies, but they are much smaller than rice grains and easily separated from them.  This is a particularly troublesome weed in the Imperial Valley.  (Robbins et al. 86).     About 70 species of warmer regions.  (Munz, Flora So. Calif. 979).

Text Ref:  Hickman, Ed. 1268; Mason 171; Munz, Flora So. Calif. 979; Robbins et al. 72; Roberts 46.

Mason 171.

Photo Ref:  May 2 83 # 19; July 1 83 # 8; Oct 1 83 # 18.

Identity: by R. De Ruff, confirmed by F. Roberts.

First Found:  May 1983.

Computer Ref:  Plant Data 50.

Have plant specimen.

Last edit 11/26/04.  

                           July Photo                                                     May Photo