[Panicum dactylon L.; Capriola dactylon (L.) Kuntze; C. d. var. maritima (Kunth) Hitchc.; Cynodon dactylon var. maritimus (Kunth) Hack.; C. maritimus Kunth; Digitaria dactylon (L.) Scop.; D. stolonifera Schrad.]
(nat) Manienie, manienie haole
Strongly rhizomatous or stoloniferous perennials; culms decumbent and rooting at lower nodes, 2—6(—8) dm long. Sheaths smooth, the margins scarious, sometimes prolonged as lateral extensions of the ligule, sometimes pilose toward apex; ligule a short, fringed membrane 0.2-0.5 mm long, sometimes with some longer hairs on throat; blades flat, lax, 1.5—3(—4) mm wide, upper surface sometimes puberulent, mar-gins scaberulous. Inflorescences of panicles composed of 3-6(-9) digitately arranged spikes, these 3-5(-6.5) cm long, the joints short-pilose; spikelets 1-flowered, 2-2.8 mm long, sessile; glumes small, compressed, 1-nerved, keeled, the keel scaberulous, first glume lanceolate, curved, 0.7- 1.5(-2) mm long, second glume lanceolate, straight, 1.2-2(-2.5) mm long, tapered into a short awn tip; lemma broadly ovate, 1.8- 2.2(-2.5) mm long, 3-nerved, the lateral nerves submarginal, nerves glabrous or pubescent; palea subequal to lemma. Caryopsis ellipsoid, 2.2-2.7 mm long. [2n = 18, 26,    27, 30, 36, 40, 54.] Possibly native to tropical Africa, but now widely cultivated and naturalized; in Hawai‘i cultivated and naturalized along roadsides and in exposed rocky or sandy sites, forming a solid mat where seepage may be present, 0-2,270 m, documented from Kure, Midway, and Pearl and Hermes atolls, Laysan, French Frigate Shoals, and all of the main islands except Ni‘ihau and Moloka‘i. Hillebrand (1888) relates a statement from G. P. Judd that this species was introduced to Hawai‘i in 1835.— Plate 223.
Some Hawaiian material has been labeled as var. maritimus, a larger form used for fodder. However, because of the extensive amount of polymorphism in this species, this form cannot always be reliably distinguished.