Technical data of weeds: Cynodon dactylon.

Dear readers, in this opportunity we will socialize a species of grass that can be located in livestock ecosystems but that is not considered of importance for the feeding of ruminants, but despite this, it is widely used in gardens and football and baseball stadiums because it is a creeping plant that when it begins to spread over the surface can create a mattress that is very beneficial to practice the aforementioned sports disciplines, within the management they need is pruning, irrigation and proper fertilization, considering that it is a family plant of the poceas and therefore has the ability to regrow and stay for long periods on the surfaces where they are established.

ORIGIN OF THE NAME: According to Mejía (2009), his name Cynodon comes from the Greek “kuon”: dog and “odons”: tooth. Some researchers point out that this name may be related to the fact that dogs use this plant to relax, “Dactylon”: from the Greek “daktylos”: finger; by the way the digitate type inflorescence it has is arranged. It is also important to note that its common name is bermuda grass or sweet grass and belongs to the Poaceae family.

ECO-BIOLOGICAL DESCRIPTION: regarding its region of origin, some reports indicate that there is no certainty and tropical Africa, Europe, Asia, India and Malaysia are cited as possible regions of origin, today it is distributed in the tropical and subtropical regions of the world, it is a monocotyledonous, herbaceous, perennial plant, from 0.15 to 0.80 m high, propagates by seeds and vegetatively by rhizomes and stolons, it is not demanding in terms of the soil factor, tolerates long periods of drought, with early allelopathic, it is used as a lawn in gardens also as a forage plant, it is a host of the fungus Pyricularia oryzae that can generate complications in rice cultivation, since it generates a disease that can affect its leaves and other vegetative parts of plants and the nematode Meloidogyne incognita that can affect the root system of some plants such as rice and some vegetables.

MORPHOLOGICAL DESCRIPTION: the root of the plant is fibrous originating in stolons and rhizomes, its stems are erect and also presents creeping stems, the erect ones do not present hairiness and the inflorescence is in them; the creeping ones (stolons) are branched without hairiness with superficial adventitious roots in the nodes; the leaves are arranged alternately on the stem, they are narrow lanceolate with hairiness on the underside and rough in the bundle, 2 to 10 cm in length and 0.1 to 0.4 cm wide and are sessile (they do not have an organ that serves as a support like the peduncle); the inflorescence is digitate, all originated at the same point, thin and 1 to 7 cm long and the seeds are very small, oval in shape and reddish brown.

Possible damage and control: as for the damage that it can cause in agricultural ecosystems, it is based on the fact that it serves as hosts for some organisms such as those mentioned above and that can affect certain crops such as rice, in the case of forage surfaces its consumption does not generate any type of poisoning in the animal and does not have high nutritional values that can be used by ruminants.

For its control, taking into account that it is a creeping plant if it occupies a large part of the surface intended for planting, the harrow can be used to turn the ground and apply systemic herbicides that can inhibit the growth of creeping stems, in case some fractions of rhizomes or stolons remain in the soil, new seedlings will proliferate again.

Dear readers, Cynodon dactylon is another of the plant species that have adapted to tropical conditions, it is resistant to trampling, therefore, it is used in football fields, it can be consumed by animals and if you want to supply it to animals in critical times it can be preserved through the silage method.