Flora of North America species comparison

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Dichanthelium leibergii

Dichanthelium commutatum

Leiberg's panicum, Leiberg's rosette grass, leibergs panicgrass

variable panicgrass, variable rosette-panicgrass
Habit Plants cespitose, with knotty rhizomes no more than 2 mm thick. Plants cespitose, with caudices or with rhizomes up to 2 mm thick.
Culms

24-80 cm, glabrous or puberulent;

nodes sparsely, spreading-pilose;

internodes mostly elongated, glabrous or puberulent;

fall phase with a few suberect branches from the lower and midculm nodes, blades slightly reduced, secondary panicles partially exserted.

20-75 cm, erect or decumbent to sprawling, often purplish;

nodes and internodes glabrous or puberulent to pubescent;

fall phase initially nearly erect, often sprawling eventually, branches initially erect and apparently dichotomous, later rebranching, blades and secondary panicles smaller than those of the culms.
Cauline leaves

3-4;

sheaths not overlapping, with ascending papillose-based hairs;

ligules 0.3-0.5 mm, membranous, ciliate, cilia longer than the membranous portion;

blades 5-15 cm long, 7-13 mm wide, ascending to erect, sparsely to densely pubescent with papillose-based hairs, with 9-11 prominent major veins and 25-50 minor veins, bases truncate to cordate, margins with papillose-based cilia.

4-6;

sheaths not overlapping, often glaucous, purplish, or olivaceous, glabrous or puberulent, margins usually ciliate;

ligules about 0.3 mm, membranous, ciliate, cilia longer than the membranous portion, rarely with adjacent, about 12 mm hairs;

blades 5-16 cm long, 5-25 mm wide, linear to ovate-lanceolate, glabrous or puberulent, with 9-13 major veins and 30-80 minor veins, bases cordate-clasping, often asymmetrical, with papillose-based marginal cilia.
Panicles

6-10 cm long, 3-5 cm wide, their length usually less than twice their width, eventually well-exserted, with 20-40 spikelets;

branches spreading to ascending.

5-12 cm long, 3-10 cm wide, open, exserted;

branches flexuous.
Spikelets

3.3-3.8 mm long, 1.6-2 mm wide, ellipsoid-obovoid, turgid, pubescent, hairs papillose-based, apices rounded.

2.2-3.2 mm long, 1.1-1.3 mm wide, ellipsoid, yellowish-green or purplish, pubescent.
Lower glumes

about 1.8 mm, narrowly triangular;

lower florets staminate;

upper florets mucronate.

0.7-1.8 mm;

upper glumes and lower lemmas equaling or slightly shorter than the spikelets;

lower florets sterile;

upper florets often minutely umbonate.
Basal

rosettes well-differentiated;

blades few, small, ovate to lanceolate.

rosettes well-differentiated;

blades 1-14 cm long, to 22 mm wide, ovate to lanceolate.
2n

= 18.

= 18.

Dichanthelium leibergii

Dichanthelium commutatum
Distribution
from FNA
IA; IL; IN; KS; MI; MN; MO; ND; NE; NY; OH; PA; SD; WI; AB; MB; ON; SK
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
from FNA
AL; AR; CT; DC; DE; FL; GA; IL; IN; KY; LA; MA; MD; ME; MI; MO; MS; NC; NJ; NY; OH; OK; PA; RI; SC; TN; TX; VA; WV
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Dichanthelium leibergii grows primarily on prairie relics, but is occasionally found in sandy woodlands. It is restricted to the Flora region. The primary panicles are produced from mid-May through July, the secondary panicles from late June to September. Sterile putative hybrids with D. acuminatum and D. xantho-physum are occasionally found.

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

Dichanthelium commutatum is fairly common in dry to wet, semi-open woodlands. Its range extends from the eastern United States to South America. The primary panicles are open-pollinated and are produced from April through June; the secondary panicles are primarily cleistogamous and are produced from June through fall. The four subspecies are fairly distinct in some parts of their ranges, but subsp. commutatum intergrades with the other three where they occur together.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Key
1. Culms densely crisp-puberulent; spikelets 2.2-2.7 mm long; cauline blades usually 5-8 cm long, 5-10 mm wide, thick, the bases symmetrical; rosette blades usually less than 3 cm long and to 6 mm wide
subsp. ashei
1. Culms usually glabrous or sparsely pubescent; spikelets 2.6-3.2 mm long; cauline blades usually more than 8 cm long and 10 mm wide, thin, bases sometimes asymmetrical; rosette blades large, some more than 4 cm long and 10 mm wide.
→ 2
2. Cauline blades nearly linear, 5-14 mm wide, about 10 times as long as wide; spikelets 3-3.2 mm long; lower glumes about 1/2 as long as the spikelets
subsp. equilaterale
2. Cauline blades ovate-lanceolate, 6-25 mm wide, about 4-8 times as long as wide; spikelets 2.6-3.2 mm long; lower glumes about 1/4 as long as the spikelets.
→ 3
3. Culms decumbent or sprawling, with loose caudices or rhizomes; blades strongly asymmetric-falcate, often; spikelets 2.9-3.2 mm long; lower lemmas pointed
subsp. joorii
3. Culms more or less erect, with caudices; blades almost symmetrical, green, sometimes glaucous; spikelets 2.6-2.9 mm long; lower lemmas rounded
subsp. commutatum
Source FNA vol. 25, p. 416. FNA vol. 25, p. 414.
Parent taxa Poaceae > subfam. Panicoideae > tribe Paniceae > Dichanthelium > sect. Macrocarpa Poaceae > subfam. Panicoideae > tribe Paniceae > Dichanthelium > sect. Macrocarpa
Sibling taxa
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. 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. 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
Subordinate taxa
D. commutatum subsp. ashei, D. commutatum subsp. commutatum, D. commutatum subsp. equilaterale, D. commutatum subsp. joorii
Synonyms Panicum leibergii Panicum commutatum, Panicum divergens
Name authority (Vasey) Freckmann (Schult.) 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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