Plants annual. Culms 10-60 cm, herbaceous, not woody, often creeping. Leaves cauline; sheaths open, glabrous or pubescent; ligules membranous, with a ciliate fringe, fringe longer than the membranous base. Inflorescences terminal, secund panicles of 1-sided branches; branches erect to ascending, axes triquetrous, terminating in a well-developed spikelet; secondary branches, when present, shorter than the primary branches; disarticulation below the glumes and beneath the upper florets. Spikelets solitary, subsessile, dorsally compressed, unequally convex, in 2 rows, the lower glumes and lemmas appressed or adjacent to the branch axes, with 2 florets; lower florets sterile or staminate; upper florets stipitate, bisexual, usually glabrous, readily disarticulating, acuminate. Lower glumes to 0.5 mm, less than 1/2 as long as the spikelets, glabrous, adjacent to the branch axes, 0-1-veined; upper glumes and lower lemmas subequal, villous, 3-5-veined; upper glumes subequal to or slightly exceeding the upper florets, not saccate; lower paleas present; anthers (if present) 3; upper lemmas equaling the second glume, glabrous, indurate, smooth, shiny to lustrous, 5- or 7-veined, margins involute, apices round to muticous; upper paleas similar to the upper lemmas; anthers 3. Caryopses ovoid, dorsally compressed. x = 9. Name from the Greek mooros, fool, and chloa, grass.

Moorochloa, as now interpreted, includes three species, all native to the Eastern Hemisphere. It differs from Urochloa in its smooth, rounded, distal floret and from Panicum in its secund panicle and stipitate, shiny to lustrous, disarticulating distal floret. Many of the species previously placed in the genus are now placed in Urochloa. One species is established in the Flora region.

Moorochloa used to be known as Brachiaria (Trin.) Griseb., for which Brachiaria eruciformis (Sm.) Griseb. was cited as the type. Veldkamp (2004) pointed out that B. eruciformis was not included in Trinius' concept of Panicum sect. Brachiaria Trin., and so could not be taken as its type. Pfeiffer (1871-1873) lectotypified Brachiaria on Panicum holosericum R. Br., but this species is now included in Urochloa. Veldkamp recommended conservation of the traditional, but invalid, typification of Brachiaria so that that namce could be retained as the name of the few species left in the genus after most had been transferred to Urochloa. The Nomenclatural Committee for Spermatophyta of the International Association for Plant Taxonomy rejected the suggestion, recommending that he publish a new name. He did so, reluctantly, in 2004.

1.   Moorochloa eruciformis (Sm.) Veldkamp
Sweet Signalgrass

Plants mat-forming. Culms (10)19-60 cm, decumbent, rooting at the lower nodes before geniculately ascending, sometimes branching from the upper nodes; nodes pubescent; internodes glabrous. Sheaths glabrous or pubescent; ligules to 1 mm; blades 2-6(12) cm long, 3-6 mm wide, pubescent (rarely pilose) on both surfaces, bases subcordate. Panicles 4-9 cm long, 0.5-1 cm wide, exserted, with 3-15 erect to appressed branches; branches 1-2 cm, hispidulous; pedicels 0.1-0.5 mm, pubescent. Spikelets (1.6)2-2.6 mm long, 0.8-1 mm wide, ovate. Lower glumes 0.3-0.5 mm, to 1/5 the spikelet length; upper glumes (1.6)2-2.5 mm; lower lemmas longer than the paleas, 5-veined, without cross-venation; upper lemmas (1.4)1.7-1.8 mm long, 0.6-0.9 mm wide; anthers 0.5-1 mm, reddish. Caryopses 1-1.5 mm. 2n = 18, 36.

Moorochloa eruciformis is native from the Mediterranean to tropical Africa and India. It tends to be a weedy species in many parts of the world, growing in moist, disturbed sites. It has been grown for evaluation as a forage crop at various experimental stations in the United States. A few of these plantings have resulted in escapes that have persisted for a short time, but the species has not become an established in the Flora region. The map shows only records based on escapes.c