Panicum brachyanthum
Panicum paludosum
prairie panicgrass
aquatic panicum, Chesapeake panicgrass
slender, wiry, glabrous, often with minute purple streaks and dots, ascending from a decumbent base, often branching extensively at the base and rooting at the lower nodes.
30-150 cm tall, 3-7 mm thick, compressed, spongy, glabrous, decumbent and rooting at the lower nodes in shallow water;
nodes glabrous;
internodes glabrous, smooth.
usually shorter than the internodes, glabrous, margins short-ciliate;
ligules usually less than 0.3 mm, membranous, erose, ciliate;
blades 4-15 cm long (rarely longer), 2-3 mm wide, flat or slightly involute, glabrous on both surfaces, margins scabridulous, especially towards the apices, bases narrowed.
usually shorter than the internodes, not keeled, glabrous or sparsely hispid distally;
ligules 1-4 mm;
blades 10-40 cm long, 5-15 mm wide, flat, glabrous, contracted basally, attenuate distally, apices acute.
4-17 cm, 1/2 to nearly as wide as long;
branches few, capillary, ascending or spreading, scabridulous, with a few spikelets distally;
pedicels 0.5-10 mm.
10-25 cm long, 5-17 cm wide, shortly exserted or included basally;
primary branches 4-12 cm, ascending to spreading, secondary and higher order branches confined to the distal 2/3, pedicels 1-4 mm, sharply 3-angled, ascending to appressed.
3.2-4 mm long, about 1.5 mm wide, broadly ellipsoid or obovoid, tuberculate, hispid, faintly veined, acute or acuminate at the apices.
3-4 mm long, 0.8-2 mm wide, lanceolate.
usually less than 1 mm, obtuse or acute;
upper glumes and lower lemmas subequal, distinctly tuberculate, hispid, with stiff hairs arising from wartlike bases;
upper florets 2.7-3.2 mm long, 1.3-1.6 mm wide, obovoid or ellipsoid, nearly smooth, minutely papillose, or cross-rugulose, subacute to acute.
0.5-0.9 mm, 1/5 – 1/3 as long as the spikelets, rounded, glabrous, truncate, weakly 1-3-veined;
upper glumes and lemmas subequal, glabrous, 9-11-veined, veins prominent, apices acute to accuminate;
lower paleas about 2/3 as long as the lower lemmas;
lower florets sterile;
upper florets 2-2.7 mm, narrowly ellipsoid, smooth, shiny, yellowish.
= unknown.
= 54.
Panicum brachyanthum
Panicum paludosum
Panicum brachyanthum grows in dry, sandy or clayey soils of open areas, remnant prairies, woodland borders, and roadsides and, less commonly, along the margins of bogs and on grassy shores in the western portion of the gulf coast plain. It is restricted to the southern United States. It resembles P. verrucosum in its growth habit, but is more restricted in its distribution.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Panicum paludosum is an Asian species that grows in shallow water. It has been found in Baltimore, Maryland, but may not be established there.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
LA Plants
WildflowerSearch
iNaturalist
USDA Plants Database
MD Biodiversity
