Panicum antidotale |
Panicum amarum |
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blue panic, blue panic grass, blue panicum |
bitter beachgrass, bitter panicgrass, bitter panicum |
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Habit | Plants perennial; cespitose, rhizomatous, rhizomes about 1 cm thick, knotted, pubescent, with large, scalelike leaves. | Plants perennial; rhizomatous, rhizomes stout, glabrous and glaucous throughout. | ||||
Culms | 50-300 cm tall, 2-4 mm thick, often compressed, erect or ascending, hard, becoming almost woody; nodes swollen, glabrous or pubescent; internodes glabrous, glaucous. |
20-250 cm tall, 3-10 mm thick, erect or decumbent, simple or branched from the lower nodes; nodes glabrous; internodes glabrous, glaucous. |
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Sheaths | not keeled, shorter than or equal to the internodes, glabrous or the lower sheaths at least partially pubescent, hairs papillose-based; ligules 0.3-1.5 mm; blades 10-60 cm long, 3-20 mm wide, elongate, flat, abaxial surfaces and margins scabrous, adaxial surfaces occasionally pubescent near the base, with prominent, white midveins, bases rounded to narrowed. |
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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Panicles | 10-45 cm, to 1/2 as wide as long, open or somewhat contracted, with many spikelets; branches 4-12 cm, opposite or alternate, ascending to spreading; pedicels 0.3-2.5 mm, scabridulous to scabrous, appressed to diverging less than 45° from the branch axes. |
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 | 2.4-3.4 mm long, 1-1.3 mm wide, ellipsoid-lanceoloid to narrowly ovoid, often purplish, glabrous, acute. |
4-7.7 mm long, 1.5-2 mm wide, narrowly ovoid, glabrous, acuminate; lower florets staminate. |
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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 | 1.4-2.2 mm, 1/3 – 1/2 as long as the spikelets, 3-5-veined, obtuse; upper glumes and lower lemmas subequal, glabrous, 5-9-veined, margins scarious, acute; lower florets staminate; upper florets 1.8-2.8 mm long, 0.9-1.1 mm wide, smooth, lustrous, acute. |
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2n | = 18, 36. |
= 36, 54. |
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Panicum antidotale |
Panicum amarum |
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Distribution |
AL; AZ; CA; FL; NC; NM; SC; TX; UT; HI
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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 antidotale is native to India. It is grown in the Flora region as a forage grass, primarily in the southwestern United States. It is now established in the region, being found in open, disturbed areas and fields. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 25, p. 482. | FNA vol. 25, p. 472. | ||||
Parent taxa | Poaceae > subfam. Panicoideae > tribe Paniceae > Panicum > subg. Agrostoidea > sect. Antidotalia | Poaceae > subfam. Panicoideae > tribe Paniceae > Panicum > subg. Panicum > sect. Repentia | ||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||
Name authority | Retz. | Elliott | ||||
Web links |