Panicum amarum |
Panicum hallii |
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bitter beachgrass, bitter panicgrass, bitter panicum |
Hall panicum, Hall's panic, Hall's panicgrass, Hall's panicum, Hall's witchgrass |
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Habit | Plants perennial; rhizomatous, rhizomes stout, glabrous and glaucous throughout. | Plants perennial; cespitose. | ||||||||
Culms | 20-250 cm tall, 3-10 mm thick, erect or decumbent, simple or branched from the lower nodes; nodes glabrous; internodes glabrous, glaucous. |
10-100 cm, 2-10 mm thick, erect, simple or sparingly branched basally; nodes sericeous, pilose or glabrous; internodes usually glaucous. |
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Sheaths | shorter or longer than the internodes, not keeled, glabrous; collars often glaucous and purplish; ligules 1-5 mm; blades 7-50 cm long, 2-13 mm wide, erect or ascending, firm, thick, flat basally, more or less involute towards the apices. |
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Leaves | often crowded basally; sheaths rounded, glabrous or hirsute, hairs fragile, papillose-based, margins sometimes ciliate distally; ligules 0.6-2 mm; blades 4-23 cm long, 1-10 mm wide, erect to spreading, flat or sometimes involute (on sterile branches), often curling at maturity, glaucous, abaxial surfaces sometimes with prominent papillae along the midribs, bases rounded or narrowing to the sheaths, margins cartilaginous, ciliate basally, scabridulous elsewhere, apices acute. |
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Panicles | 10-80 cm long, 2-17 cm wide, contracted, slightly nodding; primary branches whorled or opposite, strongly ascending to appressed; pedicels 0.5-15 mm, appressed to slightly divergent. |
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Spikelets | 4-7.7 mm long, 1.5-2 mm wide, narrowly ovoid, glabrous, acuminate; lower florets staminate. |
2.1-4.2 mm long, 0.8-1 mm wide, usually ovoid, glabrous. |
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Glumes | and lower lemmas relatively thick; lower glumes 2.8-4 mm, 1/2 - 4/5 as long as the spikelets, 3-9-veined, apices of the midveins sometimes scabridulous; upper glumes and lower lemmas extending 1.5-3 mm beyond the upper florets, apices stiffly gaping; upper glumes 3.9-7.6 mm, 5-9-veined; lower lemmas slightly shorter than the upper glumes, 7-9-veined, lower paleas 3-7 mm, oblong-hastate, folded over the anthers; lower florets staminate; upper florets 2.4-3.9 mm long, 1-1.8 mm wide, narrowly ovoid to oblong, glabrous, smooth, shiny, lemma margins clasping the paleas only at the base. |
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Terminal | panicles 7-31 cm long, 3-15 cm wide; rachises glabrous, tending to break at maturity; branches usually alternate, slender, stiff, ascending to divergent; pedicels 1-15 mm, appressed. |
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Lower | glumes 1.2-2.4 mm, 1/2 - 3/4 as long as the spikelets, attenuate; upper glumes and lower lemmas similar, 7-11-veined, acuminate, extending 0.3-1.2 mm beyond the upper florets; lower florets sterile; lower paleas 0.8-2 mm; upper florets 1.5-2.4 mm long, 0.7-1.2 mm wide, ovoid to ellipsoid, smooth, nigrescent. |
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2n | = 36, 54. |
= 18. |
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Panicum amarum |
Panicum hallii |
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Distribution |
AL; CT; DE; FL; GA; LA; MA; MD; MS; NC; NJ; NM; NY; PA; RI; SC; TX; VA; WV
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AZ; CO; LA; NM; OK; TX; UT
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Discussion | Panicum amarum grows in the coastal dunes, wet sandy soils, and the margins of swamps, along the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico from Connecticut to northeastern Mexico. It is also known, as an introduction, from a few inland locations in New Mexico, North Carolina, and West Virginia, as well as in the Bahamas and Cuba. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Panicum hallii grows on sandy, gravelly, or rocky land, including roadsides, pastures, rangeland, oak and pine savannahs, chaparral, and moist areas in deserts and on mesas. Its range extends from the southwestern United States to southern Mexico. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 25, p. 472. | FNA vol. 25, p. 466. | ||||||||
Parent taxa | Poaceae > subfam. Panicoideae > tribe Paniceae > Panicum > subg. Panicum > sect. Repentia | Poaceae > subfam. Panicoideae > tribe Paniceae > Panicum > subg. Panicum > sect. Panicum | ||||||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||||||
Synonyms | P. lepidulum | |||||||||
Name authority | Elliott | Vasey | ||||||||
Web links |