Cynodon
Couch Grasses, Star Grasses
A genus of terrestrial creeping or tufted grasses. The simple. Leaves are mainly slender, linear, with a membranous and often ciliate ligule. leaves are alternate.
The flowers are in terminal, digitate whorl of spikes, each with 2 rows of overlapping spikelets on the lower side, and the fruit are caryopsis within the lemmas, the upper part of the spikelet disarticulating from the glumes to become the dispersal unit at maturity.
The distribution is worldwide, in tropical and warmer temperate regions with an estimated 8 species. A single species is indigenous to Australia. Most of the species of this genus in Australia are non-indigenous.
Genera with which this genus may be confused by most people could include Chloris, Oxychloris, Eustachys, Eleusine, Leptochloa, Dactyloctenium, Brachyachne, Eulalia, Dichanthium, Alloteropsis and Enteropogon. This list has been made fairly broad to allow as many options as possible.
The genus is in the Poaceae. There is further information about this genus available in the Flora of NSW (Harden). This genus may be found in the 4th volume, on page 521.
The following species in this genus are presented in this volume. A link selected here will show the text for that species in the Species Window.Other names (synonyms) by which this genus is known include Capriola, Dactilon, Dactylus and Fibichia. In most cases these names were sourced from the Kew Gardens, London genera database.
C. dactylon,
*C. incompletus,
C. nlemfuensis / aethiopicus.