G.370. Eleusine Gaertn.

Description of the genus

Annuals or perennials. Inflorescence composed of digitate or subdigitate racemes borne on a short axis; racemes with 2-seriate spikelets, terminating in a fertile spikelet. Spikelets several-flowered, laterally flattened, disarticulating above the glumes and between the florets (not the latter in E. coracana). Glumes 1-several-nerved, shorter than the lemmas, awnless. Lemmas 3-nerved, strongly keeled, sometimes the keels thickened and containing 1-3 closely spaced extra nerves, glabrous, obtuse to acute.

Derivation of name: from Greek: Eleusine, a name for Demeter, goddess of grain.

Worldwide: 10 species mostly in east and northeast Africa; 1 a cosmopolitan weed (indica) and 1 confined to South America.

Zimbabwe: 3 taxa.

Links to taxa: View: living plant images - herbarium specimen images - all images for this genus

Species	FZ divisions	Content
africana Kenn.-O'Byrne	N,W,C,E,S	Description, Image
coracana (L.) Gaertn.	C	Description
indica (L.) Gaertn.	N,W,C,E	Description

Other sources of information about Eleusine:

Our websites:

Flora of Botswana: Eleusine
Flora of Burundi: Eleusine
Flora of Caprivi: Eleusine
Flora of Malawi: Eleusine
Flora of Mozambique: Eleusine
Flora of Mozambique: cultivated Eleusine
Flora of Zambia: Eleusine
Flora of Zimbabwe: cultivated Eleusine

External websites:

African Plants: A Photo Guide (Senckenberg): Eleusine
BHL (Biodiversity Heritage Library): Eleusine
EOL (Encyclopedia of Life): Eleusine
GBIF (Global Biodiversity Information Facility): Eleusine
Google: Web - Images - Scholar
iNaturalist: Eleusine
IPNI (International Plant Names Index): Eleusine
JSTOR Plant Science: Eleusine
Mansfeld World Database of Agricultural and Horticultural Crops: Eleusine
Plants of the World Online: Eleusine
Tropicos: Eleusine
Wikipedia: Eleusine