[C. cynodontioides Balansa; C. divaricata var. cynodontioides (Balansa) Lazarides]
(nat) Stargrass
Branched perennials with slender, creeping stolons; culms erect or sometimes prostrate, 20-40 cm tall, glabrous. Sheaths shorter than the internodes, usually somewhat keeled, often slightly inflated, glabrous, margins sometimes scarious; ligule a row of hairs ca. 0.5 mm long; blades flat or involute, 4-20 cm long, 1-2 mm wide, upper surface scabrous. Inflorescences con-sisting of 4-7 spikes, each one 4-20 cm long, digitately arranged at apex of rachis, spreading, slender; spikelets 2-flowered, 3-4mm long (excluding awns), closely appressed to rachis; glumes narrow, with 1 scabrous nerve, acuminate, first glume 1.5-2mm long, second glume ca. 3 mm long; first lemma subcoriaceous, 3-3.5 mm long, narrow, scaberulous and ciliate in upper part, attenuate, awn 5-6 mm long; first palea ca. 2 mm long, narrow, scabrous on keels; rudimentary lemma narrow, ca. 1.5 mm long, acute, bifid, awn 1.5-2 mm long. Caryopsis golden brown, ca. 2 mm long, narrow, triangular, attenuate at both ends. Native to New Caledonia and Australia, where it is a useful forage and range grass; in Hawaii naturalized and common in lawns and dry, disturbed areas such as along roadsides and in pastures, 0-440 m, on all of the main islands except Moloka‘i and Hawaii.
Two varieties are present in Hawai‘i: var. cynodontioides with racemes 4-9 cm long, glumes 0.2-0.3 mm wide when folded, and rachis 0.4-0.5 mm wide (0-25 m, Kaua‘i, 0‘ahu), first collected on 0‘ahu in 1931 (Wilder s.n., BISH); and var. divaricata with racemes 15-20 cm long, glumes 0.1-0.2 mm wide when folded, and rachis 0.2-0.4 mm wide (15-440 m, Ni‘ihau, Lana‘i, Maui, and Kaho‘olawe), first collected on Lana‘i in 1924 (Munro s.n., BISH).