Flora of North America species comparison

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Axonopus

carpetgrass
Habit Plants perennial, rarely annual; cespitose, loosely tufted, or mat-forming, sometimes rhizomatous or stoloniferous.
Culms

7-300 cm, not woody, often decumbent at the base, erect to ascending.
Sheaths

open;

ligules membranous, truncate, ciliate;

blades flat or convolute, usually obtuse.
Inflorescences

terminal, sometimes also axillary, panicles of 2-many, digitately, subdigitately, or racemosely arranged spikelike branches;

branches triquetrous, spikelets subsessile or sessile, solitary, in 2 rows, lower lemmas appressed to the branch axes;

disarticulation below the glumes.
Spikelets

dorsally compressed, with 2 florets;

lower florets sterile or staminate;

upper florets sessile, bisexual.
Lower glumes

absent;

upper glumes and lower lemmas equal, membranous;

lower paleas absent;

upper lemmas indurate, usually glabrous, sometimes with an apical tuft of hairs, margins slightly involute, clasping the palea, apices acute to obtuse;

upper paleas similar to the upper lemmas in texture.
Caryopses

ellipsoid, x = 10.

Axonopus
Distribution
map from FNA
AL; AR; CA; DE; FL; GA; LA; MD; MS; NC; OK; SC; TX; VA; HI; PR; Virgin Islands
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Axonopus is a genus of approximately 100 tropical and subtropical species, most of which are native to the Western Hemisphere. Three species are native to the Flora region; one additional species has been grown experimentally in Florida.

All the species tend to grow in open habitats, often where the soil is somewhat impermeable and slightly flooded in the rainy season. Axonopus fissifolius and A. compressus are cultivated for forage in many countries; A. compressus is also used as a lawn grass. Both species are inclined to be weedy. The presence of rhizomes or stolons is affected by environmental conditions, with plants growing in crowded conditions, e.g., lawns, rarely producing them.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Parent taxa Poaceae > subfam. Panicoideae > tribe Paniceae
Subordinate taxa
A. compressus, A. fissifolius, A. furcatus, A. scoparius
Key
1. Panicles with 30-100+ branches; lower branches 10-24 cm long; culms (50)100-300 cm tall
A. scoparius
1. Panicles with 2-7 branches; lower branches 1-15 cm long; culms 7-100 cm tall.
→ 2
2. Spikelets 3.5-5.5 mm long; upper glumes glabrous; lower lemmas glabrous or sparsely pilose over the veins
A. furcatus
2. Spikelets 1.6-3.5 mm long; upper glumes and lower lemmas sparsely pilose on the margins or marginal veins.
→ 3
3. Upper glumes and lower lemmas extending beyond the upper florets, forming acute to acuminate apices; blades 3-20 mm wide
A. compressus
3. Upper glumes and lower lemmas not or scarcely extending beyond the upper florets, forming obtuse to subacute apices; blades 1.5-6 mm wide
A. fissifolius
Name authority P. Beauv.
Source FNA vol. 25, p. 565. Treatment author: Mary E. Barkworth.
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



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