Panicum capillare |
Panicum psilopodium |
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common panicgrass, common witchgrass, old witch grass, panic capillaire, witch grass, witch panicgrass |
barefoot panicgrass |
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Habit | Plants annual; hirsute or hispid, hairs papillose-based, often bluish or purplish. | Plants annual; forming small clumps. | ||||
Culms | 15-130 cm, slender to stout, not woody, erect to decumbent, straight to zigzag, simple to profusely branched; nodes sparsely to densely pilose. |
20-60 cm tall, 0.8-1.2 mm thick, shortly decumbent to geniculate basally, erect distally; nodes glabrous; internodes glabrous. |
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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. |
shorter or longer than the internodes, rounded, smooth, glabrous; ligules about 1 mm; blades 5-15 cm long, 2-8 mm wide, flat, linear, glabrous or with a few marginal cilia near the base, bases contracted, apices long-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. |
10-20 cm long, 6-12 cm wide, exserted or partially included; primary branches alternate, ascending to strongly divergent, developing secondary branches in the basal 1/3 – 1/2, pedicels 4-9 mm, ascending. |
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Spikelets | 1.9-4 mm, ellipsoid to lanceoloid, often red-purple, glabrous. |
2.7-3.2 mm long, 1-1.2 mm wide, ovoid-ellipsoid, green tinged with purple, glaucous, glabrous, acute. |
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Lower glumes | 0.7-1.1 mm, about 2/5 as long as the spikelets, acute to attenuate; upper glumes and lower lemmas similar, equaling the spikelets, 11-13-veined, tapering to apiculate apices; lower paleas 1-2 mm; lower florets sterile; upper florets about 2.2 mm, ellipsoid, smooth, shiny, yellow at maturity, apices acute. |
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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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2n | = 18. |
= 54. |
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Panicum capillare |
Panicum psilopodium |
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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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MD |
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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 psilopodium is native to eastern Asia. It has been reported from chrome ore piles in Canton, Maryland (Reed 1964), but no voucher specimens have been seen. In its native range it grows in open habitats, such as roadsides and waste places. (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. 462. | ||||
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 | ||||||
Name authority | L. | Trin. | ||||
Web links |
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