Dichanthelium boreale
Dichanthelium perlongum
northern panicgrass, northern rosette-panicgrass, panic boreal
long-stalk panic grass
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.
10-50 cm, erect, lower 3-6 internodes telescoped together, forming a slender 2-4 cm column, upper 2 internodes elongated;
nodes bearded;
internodes puberulent and pubescent;
fall phase with sterile branches arising near ground level and foreshortened reproductive branches arising from the higher nodes, secondary panicles small and narrow, enclosed within the sheaths, with 5-10 spikelets.
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.
2-4;
sheaths longer than the internodes, pilose;
ligules about 0.5 mm;
blades 5-20 cm long, 1-3.5 mm wide, stiffly erect, long-tapering, sometimes involute, green or grayish-green, pubescent to pilose, upper 2 or 3 blades much longer than those below.
2-2.2 mm long, 0.8-1.3 mm wide, ellipsoid, usually reddish, shortly pubescent, subacute.
2.6-3.4 mm long, 1-1.7 mm wide, ellipsoid-obovoid, turgid, finely pubescent.
0.5-1 mm, triangular-ovate;
lower florets sterile;
upper florets slightly exceeding the upper glumes and lower lemmas, subacute.
1-1.4 mm, broadly ovate;
upper glumes and lower lemmas exceeding the upper florets by 0.2-0.3 mm before flowering, slightly pointed at maturity, upper florets obovoid, 1.9-2.7 mm, minutely umbonate.
rosettes well-differentiated;
blades 2-4 cm, pubescent, reddish.
rosettes poorly developed;
sheaths 2-4 cm;
blades similar in shape to the lower cauline blades, narrow, ascending.
panicles 5-11 cm long, 3-8 cm wide, ovoid, long-exserted, with 40-220 spikelets.
panicles 3-8 cm long, 1-3 cm wide, narrowly ellipsoid, long-exserted, with 12-25 spikelets;
branches ascending;
pedicels 2-4 mm, appressed.
= 18.
= 18.
Dichanthelium boreale
Dichanthelium perlongum
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 perlongum grows in dry to mesic prairies, and is restricted to the Flora region. It appears to hybridize occasionally with D. depauperatum and D. linearifolium. The primary panicles are briefly open-pollinated and develop from May to early June; the secondary panicles are cleistogamous and are produced from mid-June through mid-July.
Dichanthelium perlongum is similar to D. wilcoxianum, but differs in having only the upper 1 or 2 blades greatly elongated (usually more than 20 times longer than wide), narrow, erect basal blades, and a contracted panicle with ascending branches. Dichanthelium acuminatum also may also be confused with D. perlongum only if its upper internodes elongate, as tends to be the case after a spring fire, but D. acuminatum has less turgid spikelets and hairs in the ligule area that are 3-5 mm long.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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