Panicum amarum |
Panicum plenum |
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bitter beachgrass, bitter panicgrass, bitter panicum |
canyon panicgrass |
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Habit | Plants perennial; rhizomatous, rhizomes stout, glabrous and glaucous throughout. | Plants perennial; cespitose, rhizomatous, rhizomes long. | ||||
Culms | 20-250 cm tall, 3-10 mm thick, erect or decumbent, simple or branched from the lower nodes; nodes glabrous; internodes glabrous, glaucous. |
50-200 cm, strongly compressed, decumbent-erect, glaucous; nodes glabrous. |
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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. |
keeled, glabrous or pubescent near the throat, upper sheaths much shorter than the internodes; ligules 0.5-2 mm, membranous, dissected ciliate; blades 20-35 cm long, 7-17 mm wide, flat, glabrous on both surfaces or the adaxial surfaces sparsely pilose. |
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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. |
12-50 cm, about 2/3 as wide, open; primary branches spreading, often verticillate at the lower nodes; pedicels 0.2-4 mm, scabrous, spreading. |
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Spikelets | 4-7.7 mm long, 1.5-2 mm wide, narrowly ovoid, glabrous, acuminate; lower florets staminate. |
2.5-3.4 mm long, about 1.2 mm wide, ellipsoid, 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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Lower | glumes usually shorter than 1.7 mm, up to 1/2 as long as the spikelets, 3-veined, subacute; upper glumes and lower lemmas subequal, scarcely longer than the upper florets, 5-veined; lower florets sterile or staminate; upper florets 2.9-3 mm long, about 1 mm wide, ellipsoid, glabrous, dull, pale, obscurely transversely rugose, apices minutely pubescent. |
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2n | = 36, 54. |
= unknown. |
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Panicum amarum |
Panicum plenum |
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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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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 plenum grows in moist places in canyons, along streams, and on mountain slopes, from Arizona and Texas to central Mexico. It appears to be closely related to P. bulbosum. Flowering is from July into October. (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. 482. | ||||
Parent taxa | Poaceae > subfam. Panicoideae > tribe Paniceae > Panicum > subg. Panicum > sect. Repentia | Poaceae > subfam. Panicoideae > tribe Paniceae > Panicum > subg. Agrostoidea > sect. Bulbosa | ||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||
Name authority | Elliott | Hitchc. & Chase | ||||
Web links |