East Indian Crab Grass
Digitaria setigera
Also known as Mau'u-Kukaepua'a, Itchy Crabgrass
- Habit
- Herb
- Found in India
- Meghalaya, Assam, Manipur & more
- Flowering
- May-November
How to identify East Indian Crab Grass
Identify East Indian Crab Grass by combining habit, leaf characters, flower or fruit details, location, and its family pattern. Do not rely on one feature alone.
- Look for a herb habit.
- Confirm flower arrangement: Spike.
- Confirm fruit surface: Smooth, not spiny.
- In season, compare flowering and fruiting time: May-November.
- In India, compare location records such as Meghalaya, Assam, Manipur, Uttarakhand and nearby regions.
- Confirm it sits within the Poaceae family pattern, then compare close relatives before deciding it is East Indian Crab Grass.
Plant Details
- Scientific name
- Digitaria setigera
- Genus
- Digitaria
- Family
- Poaceae
- Habit
- Herb
- Habitat
- Degraded deciduous forests and grasslands, also in wasteland
- Distribution
- Tanzania, Mauritius, Seychelles, Tropical Asia to Pacific Islands
- Found in India
- Meghalaya, Assam, Manipur, Uttarakhand, Bihar, Maharashtra, Arunachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Sikkim, West Bengal
- Flowering & fruiting
- May-November
- Conservation status
- Not Evaluated (NE)
Leaf characters
- Arrangement
- Alternate
Typical of the Poaceae family — a field-mark hint, not measured for this exact species.
Flower & fruit characters
- Flower arrangement
- SpikerecordedFlowers arranged directly on a central stem without individual stalks.“It also has spikelets that consist of 3-16 spike-like branches.” — Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0
- Fruit surface
- Smooth, not spinyrecorded
Typical of the family
- Flower symmetry
- Actinomorphic (radially symmetrical)
- Inflorescence
- Spike
- Fruit
- Grain
Characters marked “recorded” are for East Indian Crab Grass itself; the rest are typical of the Poaceae family — flowering plants only.
About East Indian Crab Grass
East Indian Crab Grass (Digitaria setigera) belongs to the Poaceae family, where it grows as a herb. In India it has been recorded in Meghalaya, Assam, Manipur and 7 other states. It grows in degraded deciduous forests and grasslands, also in wasteland. Flowering and fruiting run from May to November.
Poaceae
Grass family
East Indian Crab Grass belongs to the Poaceae family.
The illustration represents the family — not necessarily this exact species.
Explore the Poaceae familySnap it. Know it.
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Common plant problems
If you are starting from symptoms instead of a diagnosis, use the plant disease symptom checker to narrow the cause before treating.
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