Citation: A. Hailer, Hist. Stirp. Helv. 2:244 (1768).

Synonymy: Not Applicable

Common name: None

Description:
Annuals or perennials; leaf blade usually flat; ligule membranous.

Inflorescence of several digitately or subdigitately arranged spike-like racemes; spikelets usually in pairs along one side of the rhachis, with 1 bisexual floret, dorsally compressed, abaxial (first glume away from the axis of the raceme); first glume minute; first lemma barren, with straight parallel nerves, similar to the second glume or larger; second lemma, bisexual, glabrous, thinly cartilaginous, with usually flat margins; palea equal to the fertile lemma and embraced by it, both hardening when ripe.

Distribution:  Nearly 400 species from warm areas.

Biology: No text

Key to Species:

1. Racemes devoid of spikelets at the base for 2-12 cm (very rarely with a few spikelets at the base and then bare for a few cm)
2. Spikelets 2-3.5 mm long, clothed with silky hairs which more or less completely obscure its outline	D. ammophila 2.
2. Spikelets 3.5-5 mm long, the indumentum not or scarcely concealing the outline of the spikelets	D. coenicola 5.
1. Racemes bearing spikelets right to their base, very rarely bare for a few mm (or to 2 cm in D. brownii)
3. Spikelets concealed by the long silky hairs on the second glume and sterile lemma	D. brownii 3.
3. Spikelets glabrous or variously hairy but not concealed by long silky hairs
4. Spikelets paired, 3-3.5 mm long
5. Second glume equal to or longer than the first lemma; primary branches of the panicle not winged	D. aequiglumis 1.
5. Second glume shorter than the first lemma; primary branches of the panicle winged along their margins
6. Nerves on the lower lemma so thick as to reduce the spaces between them to slits	D. ctenantha 6.
6. Nerves well-spaced, with the largest gap between the midrib and the first vein
7. Adaxial leaf surface pubescent; lower lemma scabrous on the lateral nerves at least in the upper part	D. sanguinalis 8.
7. Adaxial leaf surface glabrous or very sparsely hairy; lower lemma not scabrous on the nerves	D. ciliaris 4.
4. Spikelets in 3's at least below, 1.5-2.25 mm long
8. Spikelets at least 1.8 mm long; hairs on spikelets somewhat crinkled when viewed at high magnification	D. ischaemum 7.
8. Spikelets to 1.7 mm long; hairs on spikelets somewhat crinkled and with verrucose walls when viewed at high magnification	D. violascens 9.

Author: Not yet available