Common name
Koronivia grass

Derivation
Brachiaria (Trin.) Griseb., in C.F. von Ledebour, Fl. Ross. 4: 469 (1853). From the Latin brachium (arm), alluding to the manner of bearing the racemes.

humidicola- from the Latin humidus (moist) and -cola (dweller), growing in damp meadows.

Published in
Bull. Misc. Inform. 297 (1936).

Common synonyms
Urochloa humidicola (Rendle) Morrone & Zuloaga

Habit
Perennial. Stolons present. Culms geniculately ascending or decumbent, 40–100 cm tall, without nodal roots or rooting from lower nodes. Mid-culm internodes glabrous. Mid-culm nodes glabrous or pubescent. Ligule a fringed membrane or a fringe of hairs. Leaf-blade base truncate. Leaf-blades linear or lanceolate, 4–20 cm long, 3–10 mm wide. Leaf-blade surface glabrous. Leaf-blade margins smooth.

Inflorescence
Inflorescence compound, a panicle of racemes. Racemes 2–3(–4), unilateral, 2–7 cm long, 0.6–0.8 mm wide. Central inflorescence axis 2–13 cm long. Rhachis wingless or narrowly winged, angular, smooth on surface. Spikelet packing adaxial, regular, 2-rowed.

Spikelets
Spikelets solitary. Pedicels tip discoid. Fertile spikelets 2-flowered, comprising 1 fertile floret, lower floret sterile, upper fertile, without rhachilla extension, elliptic, slightly dorsally compressed, subacute, 3.8–6 mm long, falling entire. Rhachilla internodes elongated between glumes.

Glumes
Glumes similar, thinner than fertile lemma. Lower glume oblong, 3.8–4.1 mm long, 75–100% of length of spikelet, membranous, 9–11-nerved. Lower glume surface glabrous or pubescent. Lower glume apex obtuse. Upper glume oblong, 3.8–4.4 mm long, 100% of length of spikelet, membranous, 5–9-nerved. Upper glume lateral nerves with cross-nerves. Upper glume surface glabrous or pubescent. Upper glume apex obtuse, muticous.

Florets
Basal sterile floret 1, with palea. Lemma of lower sterile floret similar to upper glume, oblong, 4.1–4.3 mm long, 100% of length of spikelet, membranous, 5-nerved, with cross-nerves, glabrous or pubescent, obtuse. Fertile lemma elliptic, 3.2–5.5 mm long, indurate. Lemma surface papillose, rugulose. Lemma margins involute. Lemma apex obtuse or acute, muticous or mucronate. Palea involute, indurate, without keels.

Continental Distribution:
Africa, Australasia, Pacific, South America.

Australian Distribution:
Queensland: Cook, North Kennedy.

Classification. (GPWG 2001):
Panicoideae: Paniceae

Notes
Introduced from Africa. Used as a pasture species. Flowers Jan.–Mar.

Return to Top