Dichanthelium boreale
Dichanthelium nudicaule
northern panicgrass, northern rosette-panicgrass, panic boreal
naked-stem panicgrass
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.
20-60 cm, with caudices, slender, glabrous, weakly ascending, with a tuft of predominantly basal leaves, only the upper 3 internodes elongated;
fall phase rarely branching, branches, if present, from the basal and sub-basal nodes, erect.
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.
3-4;
sheaths longer than the internodes, lower sheaths sparsely ascending to spreading-pilose, upper sheaths somewhat elongate, striate, glabrous, lustrous;
ligules usually 0.5-1 mm, membranous, ciliate;
blades 2-20 cm long, 3-10 mm wide, mostly basal, ascending to erect, widest near midlength, flat to stiffly involute, tapering basally and partly encircling the culm, glabrous, blades of the flag leaves distant from and much smaller than those below.
2-2.2 mm long, 0.8-1.3 mm wide, ellipsoid, usually reddish, shortly pubescent, subacute.
2.4-3.2 mm long, usually less than 1 mm wide, narrowly ellipsoid to ovoid, often purplish-stained, glabrous.
0.5-1 mm, triangular-ovate;
lower florets sterile;
upper florets slightly exceeding the upper glumes and lower lemmas, subacute.
less than 1/3 as long as the spikelets, acute;
upper glumes and lower lemmas clearly longer than the upper florets, prominently veined, apices acuminate and usually beaked;
lower florets sterile;
upper florets about 2 mm long, about 1 mm wide, ellipsoid, acute.
rosettes well-differentiated;
blades 2-4 cm, pubescent, reddish.
rosettes somewhat differentiated;
blades lanceolate.
panicles 5-11 cm long, 3-8 cm wide, ovoid, long-exserted, with 40-220 spikelets.
panicles 2-7 cm long, almost as wide when expanded, long-exserted, sparse;
branches few, ascending to spreading, glabrous or scabridulous.
= 18.
= unknown.
Dichanthelium boreale
Dichanthelium nudicaule
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 nudicaule is a rare species that grows in wet pine savannas, bogs (including Sphagnum mats), and the margins of cypress swamps in eastern Louisiana, southern Mississippi and Alabama, and western Florida. Vegetatively, it exhibits traits of D. laxiflorum, but its spikelets resemble those of small plants of D. scabriusculum, which are fairly widespread in similar habitats of the Gulf coastal plain. Dichanthelium nudicaule is protected by U.S. federal law.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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