Flora of North America species comparison

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Dichanthelium boreale

Dichanthelium nodatum

northern panicgrass, northern rosette-panicgrass, panic boreal

sarita panicgrass, sarita rosette grass
Habit Plants cespitose. Plants usually cespitose, rarely rhizomatous.
Culms

18-75 cm, usually more than 1 mm thick, occasionally delicate, erect or ascending;

nodes glabrous;

internodes glabrous;

fall phase with decumbent culms, branches arising from the lower and midculm nodes, rebranching 2-3 times, with small blades and secondary panicles compared to those on the culms, secondary panicles with 8-10 spikelets, partially included at maturity.

20-65 cm, decumbent to ascending even in spring, with hard, cormlike bases;

nodes puberulent to sparsely pubescent;

internodes scabrous-puberulent to papillose-hirsute;

fall phase with geniculate to decumbent culms, developing divaricate branches from the midculm nodes before the primary panicles mature.
Cauline leaves

3-5;

sheaths shorter than the internodes, lower sheaths pubescent, upper sheaths glabrous, margins of all sheaths sparsely ciliate;

ligules about 0.5 mm, of hairs;

blades 5-11 cm long, 5-13 mm wide, thin, spreading to erect, usually glabrous, rarely pubescent abaxially, always glabrous adaxially, bases truncate to cordate, ciliate on the margins, blades of the flag leaves erect or ascending.

8-14;

sheaths not overlapping, puberulent to papillose-hirsute, margins ciliate;

ligules 0.1-1 mm, of hairs;

blades 3-9 cm long, 4-8 mm wide, thick, firm, puberulent, sides parallel above the rounded to truncate bases, margins with papillose-based cilia.
Spikelets

2-2.2 mm long, 0.8-1.3 mm wide, ellipsoid, usually reddish, shortly pubescent, subacute.

3.4-4.4 mm long, 1.3-1.6 mm wide, narrowly obovoid-obpyriform, finely pubescent, hairs papillose-based, bases long, narrow.
Lower glumes

0.5-1 mm, triangular-ovate;

lower florets sterile;

upper florets slightly exceeding the upper glumes and lower lemmas, subacute.

1.5-2 mm, attached about 0.2 mm below the upper glumes, partly or completely encircling the pedicels;

upper glumes about 0.3 mm shorter than the upper florets, purplish at the bases;

lower florets sterile;

upper florets with pointed, puberulent apices.
Basal

rosettes well-differentiated;

blades 2-4 cm, pubescent, reddish.

rosettes absent.
Primary

panicles 5-11 cm long, 3-8 cm wide, ovoid, long-exserted, with 40-220 spikelets.

panicles 3-13 cm long, 2-8 cm wide, exserted;

branches ascending to divaricate at maturity;

pedicels appressed.
Wipff

, pers.
Comm

., 2001).
2n

= 18.

= 18 (J.

Dichanthelium boreale

Dichanthelium nodatum
Distribution
from FNA
CT; DC; GA; IA; IL; IN; KY; MA; MD; ME; MI; MN; MO; NC; NH; NJ; NY; OH; PA; RI; TN; VA; VT; WI; WV; LB; NB; NS; ON; PE; QC
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
from FNA
TX
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Dichanthelium boreale grows in open woodlands and thickets, wet meadows, and fields. It is restricted to the Flora region. The primary panicles are mostly open-pollinated and are produced in May and June; the secondary panicles are predominantly cleistogamous and are produced from mid-June into October.

Dichanthelium boreale occasionally hybridizes with D. acuminatum and D. xanthophysum, producing a sterile triploid sometimes called Panicum calliphyllum Ashe.

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

Dichanthelium nodatum grows in oak savannahs near the Gulf coast from Texas to northeastern Mexico. The primary panicles are produced from April into June (sometimes late August to November) and are at least partly open-pollinated; the secondary panicles are produced from May into fall and are at least partly cleistogamous.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Source FNA vol. 25, p. 434. FNA vol. 25, p. 410.
Parent taxa Poaceae > subfam. Panicoideae > tribe Paniceae > Dichanthelium > sect. Dichanthelium Poaceae > subfam. Panicoideae > tribe Paniceae > Dichanthelium > sect. Pedicellata
Sibling taxa
D. aciculare, D. acuminatum, D. boscii, D. chamaelonche, D. clandestinum, D. commutatum, D. consanguineum, D. depauperatum, D. dichotomum, D. ensifolium, D. erectifolium, D. latifolium, D. laxiflorum, D. leibergii, D. linearifolium, D. malacophyllum, D. nodatum, D. nudicaule, D. oligosanthes, D. ovale, D. pedicellatum, D. perlongum, D. polyanthes, D. portoricense, D. ravenelii, D. scabriusculum, D. scoparium, D. sphaerocarpon, D. strigosum, D. tenue, D. wilcoxianum, D. wrightianum, D. ×anthophysum
D. aciculare, D. acuminatum, D. boreale, D. boscii, D. chamaelonche, D. clandestinum, D. commutatum, D. consanguineum, D. depauperatum, D. dichotomum, D. ensifolium, D. erectifolium, D. latifolium, D. laxiflorum, D. leibergii, D. linearifolium, D. malacophyllum, D. nudicaule, D. oligosanthes, D. ovale, D. pedicellatum, D. perlongum, D. polyanthes, D. portoricense, D. ravenelii, D. scabriusculum, D. scoparium, D. sphaerocarpon, D. strigosum, D. tenue, D. wilcoxianum, D. wrightianum, D. ×anthophysum
Synonyms Panicum boreale var. michiganense, Panicum boreale Panicum nodatum
Name authority (Nash) Freckmann (Hitchc. & Chase) Gould
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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