Panicum capillare
Panicum hemitomon
common panicgrass, common witchgrass, old witch grass, panic capillaire, witch grass, witch panicgrass
maidencane, mountain panic
15-130 cm, slender to stout, not woody, erect to decumbent, straight to zigzag, simple to profusely branched;
nodes sparsely to densely pilose.
50-200 cm, mostly erect and sterile, glabrous, often rooting from the lower nodes if submerged.
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.
usually glabrous, or pilose or hirsute at the lowermost sheath, especially distally;
ligules shorter than 1 mm;
blades 8-35 cm long, 5-15 mm wide, ascending or spreading, abaxial surfaces glabrous, adaxial surfaces usually scabridulous or pubescent, bases slightly narrowed, margins scabrous, apices long-tapering.
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.
10-30 cm long, less than 1 cm wide;
branches mostly short, appressed-ascending, with fascicles of congested spikelets; ultimate branchlets 1-sided;
pedicels 0.2-1.8 mm.
1.9-4 mm, ellipsoid to lanceoloid, often red-purple, glabrous.
2-2.8 mm, subsessile, lanceoloid, slightly laterally compressed, glabrous, acute.
about 1/2 as long as the spikelets, slightly keeled along the midveins, 3-veined, acute;
upper glumes and lower lemmas similar, glumes slightly shorter than the lemmas, faintly keeled on the back, acute;
lower florets staminate;
lower paleas subequal to the lower lemmas;
upper florets 2-2.5 mm, 2/5 to almost as long as the spikelets, narrowly ellipsoid;
upper lemmas relatively thin, flexible, pale, acuminate, clasping the paleas only at the base.
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.
= 18.
= 36, 40.
Panicum capillare
Panicum hemitomon
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 hemitomon forms extensive, nearly pure stands in water or wet soils such as marshes, swamps, and along the shores of streams, canals, ditches, lakes, and ponds. It is restricted to the United States.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
1. Upper florets without a lunate scar, usually stramineous; lower paleas absent; pedicels and secondary branches strongly divergent | subsp. capillare |
1. Upper florets with a lunate scar at the base, usually nigrescent; lower paleas present; pedicels and secondary branches often appressed, varying to narrowly divergent | subsp. hillmanii |
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