Synonymes : D. aegyptiacum Willd., Eleusine aegyptia (L.) Desf.
Common name : Crow foot grass
Common name in Bengali : Kakpaya ghash
Common name in Hindi : Makra, madana
Common name in Urdu : Madhana ghas
Bangla English Hindi Urdu
Diagnostic characters
Biology
Ecology and distribution
Nuisance
Weed control
Botany
Uses/Remark
References
Makra is an annual spreading to slightly ascending grass, rooting at nodes, branching and commonly forming radiate mats.The leaves, curled, are lined by a line of hairs and arranged in teeth of comb. These hairs are blown in the base.It can easily be recognized by its two to seven coarse, digitate spikes. Every spike, ended by a point, contains on two rows of flowers.The grain is bare, spherical, ridged and reddish. Its seeds have been used for human consumption on three continents in times of want. It is sometimes toxic to men and animals.
D. aegyptium is an annual weed. It multiplies mainly by seeds, but can also propagate in a vegetative way by its creeping stems which root at the lower nodes, during rainy season.
This species is a native of the Old World tropics, where it is a troublesome weed in rice, sugarcane, corn, cotton, peanuts. It is common on the muddy sands or the heavier lands but draining well. It can form lawns 70cm in heights. It meets mainly in the sub - wet regions and averagely dries. It meets also in very dense populations, on the coastal plains, arable lands and waste places near the sea.
In India, it is a principal weed in sugarcane, corn and rice fields.
- Chemical
Pre-emergence application of butachlor at 1.5 kg/ha, Anilophos at 400 g/ha, Pretilachlor at 1.0 kg/ha, Pendimethalin at1.5 kg/ha.
Habit
Small spreading to slightly ascending grass, rooting at nodes. High from 10 to 70cm, sometimes up to 1m.
Roots
Fibrous roots.
Stem
Slightly compressed, wide from 1 to 3mm, smooth and hairless, dark at nodes. At first prostrate, it takes root easily in nodes, then sits up in the bloom.
Leaves
Alternate, with hairless sheaths, compressing and slightly carinated. Ligule 1,5mm high, membranous and slightly laciniate in the summit. Wide blade from 4 to 8mm and long from 6 to 20cm, linear, smooth or sparsely covered with soft hairs (swollen at the bases), folded in cross section; scabrous margin, with pectinated hairs, simple or double with a tuberculated base. Hairless faces to slightly hispid.
Inflorescence
Consisting of two to seven coarse, digitate spikes, spreading horizontally, linear, lengths from 2 to 5cm and ended by a bare point. Rachis, triangular in bare upper face. Spikelets sessile, flatten laterally and arranged over 2 rows on the lower face of the rachis (long and wide from 2 to 5mm), including 2 to 5 fertile flowers. The lower glume oval lanceolated, long from 1,5 to 2mm, with hairless dorsal nerve ended in short point. The upper glume obovate, long from 1,5 to 2mm, prolonged by a scabrous point long from 1 to 1,5mm. Lemma oval, long from 2,5 to 4mm, with thick and scabrous dorsal nerve. Palea slightly shorter than the lemma, membranous, and ended in short point.
Seeds
Caryopsis, obovate, 1mm in length, with loose pericarp, irregular, transversely ridged, orange-brown.
Seedling
Young leaves rolled up. Ligule membranous, laciniated in the summit; sheath glabrous; blade linear, lanceolated, length from 2 to 5cm and 3mm wide; main nerve folded; ciliated margin with pectinated hairs.
- Le Bourgeois T., Jeuffrault E., Grard P., Carrara A. 2001. AdvenRun V.1.0. Les principales mauvaises herbes de La Réunion. CD-ROM. Cirad, SPV. France.
- Holm L. G., Plucknett D. L., Pancho J. V., Herberger J. P. 1991. The world’s worst weeds. Distribution and Biology. East-West Center by the University Press. Hawaii.
- Soerjani M., Kostermans A. J. G. H., Tjitrosoepomo G. 1987. Weeds of rice in Indonesia. Balai Pustaka. Jakarta.
- Häfliger E., Scholz H. 1980. Grass Weeds 2. Documenta Ciba-Geigy. Switzerland.
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