Eragrostis cumingii Steud., Syn. Pl. Glumac.

Eragrostis cumingii Steud., Syn. Pl. Glumac. View in CoL 1: 266. 1854; Bor, Grass. Burma Ceylon India Pakistan 507. 1960; Mohanan & Sreekumar, J.

Econ. Taxon. Bot. 3: 447. 1982; Karthik. et al., Fl. Ind. Enum. Monocot. 216. 1989; Sreek. & V.J. Nair, Fl. Kerala-Grass. 380. 1991. E. simplex Scribner, Bull. Div. Agrostol. U.S.D.A. 7(ed. 3): 250. 1900. E. distans Hack., Publ. Bur. Sci. Gov. Lab. View in CoL 35: 81. 1906. Lectotype (designated by Lazarides, 1997): PHILIPPINES. Luzon, Cuming 1104 (K000290379 digital image!; isolecto BM, BRI, E, FI, G, L, MO, P, W). Fig. 1 View Fig

Annuals or perennials. Culms erect or decumbent, slender, 3–100 cm tall; nodes brownish; internodes 2–5 cm long, glabrous. Leaf sheaths 1.5–4 cm long, glabrous or sparsely tubercle based ciliate, mouth bearded; ligule a fringe of cilia; leaves mostly basal, filiform, 5–10 cm long, blades linear to lanceolate, apex acuminate, base more or less rounded, margins entire, upper surface sparsely ciliate. Panicle open, elliptic to oblong, 4–10 × 1–2 cm, with spikelets clumped along branches, branches alternate, short, 1–3 cm long, eglandular, angled, slightly scabrous along angles, base and axils densely ciliate; peduncle 3–13 cm long, striate, glabrous. Spikelets lanceolate to oblong, 5–10 × 1–2.3 mm, apex sharply acute, greenish to pinkish; pedicels short, stiff, 0.5–1.5 mm long, eglandular, angled, slightly scabrous along angles. Glumes deciduous, linear to lanceolate, apex acute to acuminate, margins entire, chartaceous to subcoriaceous, 1-nerved, keeled, scabrous along keel; lower glume 1–1.5 × 0.3–0.5 mm; upper glume, 1.5–2 × 0.5–0.7 mm. Florets 10–30, breaking from below upwards, closely arranged on rachilla, pinkish; rachilla narrowly zigzag. Lemmas deciduous, ovate to lanceolate, 1.5– 1.8 × 0.6–1 mm, apex acute, margins entire, subcoriaceous, 3-nerved, lateral nerves nearly straight, 1-keeled, slightly scabrous along keel. Paleas persistent, elliptic to oblanceolate, 1–1.3 × 0.2– 0.4 mm, apex acute to obtuse, margins entire, slightly curved, 2-nerved, 2-keeled, ciliolate along keels. Lodicules 2, c. 0.15 mm long, apex truncate, white. Stamens 3; anthers c. 0.1 mm long, purplish. Ovary ovoid, c. 0.1 mm long, pale green to cream coloured; styles c. 0.2 mm long, white; stigmas c. 0.3 mm long, white to cream coloured. Caryopses ovate to globose or orbicular, c. 0.5 × 0.3 mm, brownish.

Flowering & fruiting: June–March.

Habitat: In plains and open places in forests.

Distribution: Temperate and tropical Asia, Australasia, North America.

Specimens examined: INDIA, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, South Andaman, Beadonabad, 30.11.1973, N. P. Balakrishnan 661 ( CAL, PBL); Nayasahar , N 11°34.447' E 092°40.470', 5 m, 04.03.2019, C. P. Vivek GoogleMaps

33203 ( PBL); Shippighat , N 11°35.543' E 092°40.497', 3 m, 25.01.2019, C. P GoogleMaps . Vivek 33202 ( PBL); Port Blair , 3 m, 12.01.1951, K . Thothathri 9042 ( CAL, MH, PBL). Kerala, Kannur district, Chandanathode , 825 m, 17.06.1979, V. S . Ramachandran 62649 ( CAL, MH); Thiruvananthapuram district , Veli, 30 m, 30.07.1979, M . Mohanan 63327 ( CAL, MH) .

Notes: Eragrostis cumingii can be easily mistaken for a morphologically similar taxon, E. zeylanica Nees & Mey. which is distributed in Bangladesh, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and India. Both the species closely resemble each other in a number of vegetative as well as floral characters. They have linear panicle with sharply acute spikelets clumped along branches, and florets are closely arranged on rachilla. Moreover, leaves exhibit panicoid type of microhairs ( Vivek et al., 2016). However, E. cumingii has rather sprawling and taller culms as compared to E. zeylanica and more other distinct characters as depicted in figure 1 and table 1. Only a few authentic specimens of E. zeylanica could be studied in Indian herbaria, recorded from Kerala [ V.S. Ramachandran 60035 (CAL & MH); V.J. Nair 59997 (MH); C.P. Vivek 126160 (MH)], Sikkim [ R.C. Srivastava 12118; 12114 (BSHC)] and West Bengal [ Joh. W. Helfers.n., acc. no. 541918 (CAL)]. Other specimens wrongly determined in the herbaria as E. zeylanica are in fact belonging to E. cumingii . The Checklist of flora of Andaman and Nicobar Islands ( Pandey & Diwakar, 2008; Murugan et al., 2016) have included E. zeylanica , probably based on the collections of K. Thothathri 9042 (CAL, MH & PBL) and N.P. Balakrishnan 661 (CAL & PBL). However, critical study on the specimens revealed that the gatherings belong to E. cumingii and included in the present paper under the latter as additional collections of the taxon examined in the Islands. So far, no authentic specimen of E. zeylanica could be traced in herbaria as occurring in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.