Flora of North America species comparison

The green links below add additional plants to the comparison table. Blue links lead to other Web sites.
enable glossary links

Dichanthelium leibergii

Dichanthelium polyanthes

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

many-flower panicgrass
Habit Plants cespitose, with knotty rhizomes no more than 2 mm thick. Plants cespitose, with few culms per tuft.
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.

30-95 cm, nearly erect, fairly stout;

nodes glabrous or puberulent;

internodes usually glabrous;

fall phase with few, long-ascending branches, sparingly rebranched, branches arising mostly near the base 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.

4-7;

sheaths shorter than the internodes, mostly glabrous, margins ciliate;

ligules vestigial;

blades 10-25 cm long, 14-25 mm wide, thick, firm, often light green, veins evident (some more prominent than others), bases cordate, with papillose-based cilia, margins whitish, cartilaginous.
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.

Spikelets

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

1.3-1.7 mm, broadly ellipsoid-spherical, often purplish at the base, puberulent.
Lower glumes

about 1.8 mm, narrowly triangular;

lower florets staminate;

upper florets mucronate.

0.4-0.7 mm, acute to obtuse, upper florets 1.1-1.4 mm, broadly ellipsoid, blunt.
Basal

rosettes well-differentiated;

blades few, small, ovate to lanceolate.

rosettes well-differentiated;

blades 3-8 cm long, often to 2 cm wide, ovate-lanceolate.
Primary

panicles 7-20 cm, less than 1/2 as wide as long, exserted.
2n

= 18.

= 18.

Dichanthelium leibergii

Dichanthelium polyanthes
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 USDA
[WildflowerSearch 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 polyanthes grows in woods, stream banks, and ditches, and is restricted to the eastern United States. It occasionally hybridizes with D. sphaerocarpon.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Source FNA vol. 25, p. 416. FNA vol. 25, p. 440.
Parent taxa Poaceae > subfam. Panicoideae > tribe Paniceae > Dichanthelium > sect. Macrocarpa Poaceae > subfam. Panicoideae > tribe Paniceae > Dichanthelium > sect. Sphaerocarpa
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. 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. portoricense, D. ravenelii, D. scabriusculum, D. scoparium, D. sphaerocarpon, D. strigosum, D. tenue, D. wilcoxianum, D. wrightianum, D. ×anthophysum
Synonyms Panicum leibergii Panicum sphaerocarpon var. polyanthes, Panicum sphaerocarpon var. isophyllum, Panicum polyanthes
Name authority (Vasey) Freckmann (Schult.) Mohlenbr.
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).



Type/paste one or more Latin names into the boxes above; matching taxa will show up below the box as you type. You can use the up/down arrow keys to move through the list.

(If the plant you're looking for doesn't show up in the auto-complete list, that means it either isn't described in Flora of North America yet, or it's listed under a synonym. And please note that Flora of North America is still missing several plant families, including Fabaceae, Apiaceae, Boraginaceae, and Polemoniaceae.)

Choose a data source: Flora of North America

The species comparison tool is brought to you by:
Northwest Wildflowers