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broadleaf carpetgrass

big carpetgrass

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

7-80 cm;

nodes glabrous or pubescent.

30-100 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.

compressed, glabrous or sparsely to densely pilose, hairs appressed;

ligules 0.3-1 mm;

blades 3-25 cm long, 2-15 mm wide, margins often with papillose-based hairs near the base, scabrous distally.

Panicles

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

branches 1-13 cm.

terminal and axillary, with 2 (-4) divergent branches;

branches 4-15 cm.

Spikelets

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

3.5-5.5 mm long, about 1.5 mm wide, sessile or subsessile, ovoid-ellipsoid, acuminate.

Caryopses

1.2-1.5 mm, gray.

1.8-2.2 mm, obovate, yellow.

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.

glumes glabrous, 5-7-veined;

lower lemmas 5-7-veined, glabrous or sparsely pilose over the veins;

upper lemmas and paleas 2.5-3.2 mm, light yellow, obtuse.

2n

= 40, 60, 80.

= unknown.

Axonopus compressus

Axonopus furcatus

Distribution
from FNA
AL; AR; FL; GA; LA; SC; TX; PR; Virgin Islands
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
from FNA
AL; AR; DE; FL; GA; LA; MD; MS; NC; OK; SC; TX; VA
[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.)

Axonopus furcatus is endemic to the southeastern United States. It grows in moist pine barrens, marshes, river banks, wet ditches, pond margins, and other such damp areas.

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

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