Panicum capillare |
Panicum hallii |
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common panicgrass, common witchgrass, old witch grass, panic capillaire, witch grass, witch panicgrass |
Hall panicum, Hall's panic, Hall's panicgrass, Hall's panicum, Hall's witchgrass |
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Habit | Plants annual; hirsute or hispid, hairs papillose-based, often bluish or purplish. | Plants perennial; cespitose. | ||||||||
Culms | 15-130 cm, slender to stout, not woody, erect to decumbent, straight to zigzag, simple to profusely branched; nodes sparsely to densely pilose. |
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 | rounded, hirsute or hispid, hairs papillose-based; ligules membranous, ciliate, cilia 0.5-1.5 mm; blades 5-40 cm long, 3-18 mm wide, linear, spreading. |
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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 | 13-50 cm long, 7-24 cm wide, usually more than 1/2 as long as the plants, included at the base or exserted at maturity, disarticulating at the base of the peduncles at maturity and becoming a tumbleweed; branches spreading; pedicels 0.5-2.8 mm, scabrous, pilose. |
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Spikelets | 1.9-4 mm, ellipsoid to lanceoloid, often red-purple, glabrous. |
2.1-4.2 mm long, 0.8-1 mm wide, usually ovoid, glabrous. |
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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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Lower | florets sterile; lower glumes 1/3– 1/2 as long as the spikelets, 1-3-veined; upper glumes 1.8-3.1 mm, 7-9-veined, midveins scabridulous; lower lemmas 1.9-3 mm, extending 0.4-1.1 mm beyond the upper florets, often stiff, straight, prominently veined distally; upper florets stramineous or nigrescent, sometimes with a prominent lunate scar at the base, often disarticulating before the glumes, leaving the empty glumes and lower lemmas temporarily persisting on the panicles. |
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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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2n | = 18. |
= 18. |
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Panicum capillare |
Panicum hallii |
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Distribution |
AL; AR; AZ; CA; CO; CT; DC; DE; FL; GA; IA; ID; IL; IN; KS; KY; LA; MA; MD; ME; MI; MN; MO; MS; MT; NC; ND; NE; NH; NJ; NM; NV; NY; OH; OK; OR; PA; RI; SC; SD; TN; TX; UT; VA; VT; WA; WI; WV; WY; AB; BC; MB; NB; NS; ON; PE; QC; SK; Virgin Islands
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AZ; CO; LA; NM; OK; TX; UT
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Discussion | Panicum capillare grows in open areas, particularly in disturbed sites such as fields, pastures, roadsides, waste places, ditches, sand, and rock crevices, etc. It grows throughout temperate North America, including northern Mexico. It also grows in Bermuda, the Virgin Islands, and sporadically in South America, and has become naturalized in much of Europe and Asia. It appears to hybridize with P. philadelphicum. (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. | FNA vol. 25, p. 466. | ||||||||
Parent taxa | Poaceae > subfam. Panicoideae > tribe Paniceae > Panicum > subg. Panicum > sect. Panicum | Poaceae > subfam. Panicoideae > tribe Paniceae > Panicum > subg. Panicum > sect. Panicum | ||||||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||||||
Synonyms | P. lepidulum | |||||||||
Name authority | L. | Vasey | ||||||||
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