PANGOLAGRASS

 E. M. Hodges, G. B. Killinger, J. E. McCaleb, O. C. Ruelke,
 R. J. Allen, Jr., S. C. Schank, and A. E. Kretschmer, Jr.1


 INTRODUCTION
 Pangolagrass, Digitaria decumbens Stent., has become an
 important species of grass for pasture, hay, and silage in penin-
 sular Florida. Estimates of improved pasture area in the state
 are in excess of two million acres with pangolagrass accounting
 for some 25% of the whole. Virtually all commercial acreages
 of this variety in Florida are located on mineral soils lying
 southward of St. Augustine, Gainesville, and Chiefland.
 As a part of the continuing plant introduction program car-
 ried on by state and federal agencies, several new grasses were
 received as vegetative material in Arlington, Virginia, in May
 1935, from Dr. I. B. Pole Evans, Pretoria, South Africa (11,
 24)2. These were maintained at the introduction station and in
 April 1936 sent to George E. Ritchey, Agronomist, where they
 were established in the forage plant introduction garden of the
 Florida Agricultural Experiment Station. The most promising
 one, a strain bearing the plant introduction number 111,110,
 was selected for further testing. It was first widely distributed
 to farmers and ranchers in 1943. First called Digit grass or
 Digitaria, it was finally given the common name pangolagrass.
 This is a misspelling of the name of the Pongola River which
 crosses the region of South Africa where this grass is believed
 to have originated. Since it came from an area in the southern
 hemisphere which lies at about the same latitude south of the
 equator as Lake Okeechobee does to the north, it is not surpris-
 ing that pangolagrass was found to be well adapted to central
 and south Florida. This grass has been established in pastures
 in many subtropical and tropical areas throughout the world
 (27, 33). The Gulf Coast of Mexico, where it has been planted

'Hodges: Agronomist, Range Cattle Experiment Station, Ona; Killinger:
Agronomist, Agricultural Experiment Station, Gainesville; McCaleb: As-
sociate Agronomist, Range Cattle Experiment Station; Ruelke: Associate
Agronomist, Agricultural Experiment Station, Gainesville; Allen: As-
sistant Agronomist, Everglades Experiment Station, Belle Glade; Schank:
Associate Agronomist, Agricultural Experiment Station, Gainesville;
Kretschmer: Agronomist, Indian River Field Laboratory, Ft. Pierce.
Numbers in parentheses refer to Literature Cited.