The green links below add additional plants to the comparison table. Blue links lead to other Web sites.
enable glossary links

broadleaf carpetgrass

Habit Plants stoloniferous, rarely rhizomatous, rhizomes, when present, 3-5 cm.
Culms

7-80 cm;

nodes glabrous or pubescent.

Sheaths

keeled, strongly compressed, pubescent;

ligules 0.3-0.5 mm;

blades 3-20 mm wide, glabrous or sparsely pilose, midveins often white and prominent, apices frequently ciliate or pubescent.

Panicles

terminal and axillary, 4-10 cm overall, rachises to 3.5 cm, with 2-5 branches;

branches 1-13 cm.

Spikelets

2-3.5 mm, ovoid, ellipsoid, or lanceoloid, acuminate.

Caryopses

1.2-1.5 mm, gray.

Upper

glumes and lower lemmas extending beyond the upper florets, 2-5-veined, marginal veins pilose, apices acute to acuminate;

upper lemmas and paleas 1.5-1.8 mm, broadly ellipsoid.

2n

= 40, 60, 80.

Axonopus compressus

Distribution
from FNA
AL; AR; FL; GA; LA; SC; TX; PR; Virgin Islands
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Axonopus compressus is native from the southeastern United States to Bolivia, Brazil, and Uruguay, and has become established in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is used as a lawn and forage grass but is also weedy, readily growing in moist, disturbed habitats.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Source FNA vol. 25, p. 566.
Parent taxa Poaceae > subfam. Panicoideae > tribe Paniceae > Axonopus
Sibling taxa
A. fissifolius, A. furcatus, A. scoparius
Name authority (Sw.) P. Beauv.
Web links