Panicum amarum
Panicum urvilleanum
bitter beachgrass, bitter panicgrass, bitter panicum
desert panicgrass, silky panic grass
20-250 cm tall, 3-10 mm thick, erect or decumbent, simple or branched from the lower nodes;
nodes glabrous;
internodes glabrous, glaucous.
50-100 cm, erect, solitary or in small tufts from stout, scaly, creeping to vertical rhizomes or stolons, simple or branching at the base;
nodes densely villous.
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.
densely villous;
ligules membranous, ciliate, hairs 1.5-2 mm;
blades 20-60 cm long, 4-10 mm wide, ascending to spreading, strigose to subglabrous, flat basally, tapering to a long, involute point.
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.
20-30 cm long, 3-9 cm wide, narrow, shortly exserted;
branches slender, ascending;
secondary branches and pedicels 1-4 mm, crowded, ascending to appressed.
4-7.7 mm long, 1.5-2 mm wide, narrowly ovoid, glabrous, acuminate;
lower florets staminate.
5-7 mm, densely villous, hairs silvery or tawny-white.
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.
glumes about 3/4 the length of the spikelets, 7-11-veined;
upper glumes and lower lemmas 7-15-veined;
lower florets staminate;
lower paleas about as long as the lower lemmas;
upper florets striate, margins of the upper lemmas villous, hairs white;
lodicules very large.
= 36, 54.
= 36.
Panicum amarum
Panicum urvilleanum
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 urvilleanum grows on desert sand dunes and in creosote bush scrubland in the Mojave and Colorado desert regions of southern California, southern Nevada, and western Arizona. It also grows in Peru, Chile, and Argentina.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
1. Rhizomes short or ascending; culms often bunched and decumbent, usually more than 120 cm tall; lower glumes with 3-5 less evident veins, the midvein smooth distally; spikelet density high; panicles with 2 or more main branches per node; spikelets 4-5.9 mm long | subsp. amarulum |
1. Rhizomes horizontally elongate; culms mostly solitary, less than 150 cm tall; lower glumes with 7-9 prominent veins, the midvein scabridulous distally; spikelet density moderate; panicles with 1 or 2 main branches per node; spikelets 4.7-7.7 mm long | subsp. amarum |
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