Panicum dichotomiflorum |
Panicum psilopodium |
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fall panicgrass, fall panicum, knee grass, panic d'automne, smooth witchgrass |
barefoot panicgrass |
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Habit | Plants annual or short-lived perennials in the Flora region, perennial in the tropics; usually terrestrial, sometimes aquatic but not floating. | Plants annual; forming small clumps. | ||||||||
Culms | 5-200 cm tall, 0.4-3 mm thick, decumbent to erect, commonly geniculate to ascending, rooting at the lower nodes when in water, simple to divergently branched from the lower and middle nodes, usually succulent, slightly compressed, glabrous; nodes usually swollen, sometimes constricted on robust plants, glabrous; internodes glabrous, shiny, pale green to purplish. |
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 | compressed, inflated, sparsely pubescent near the base, elsewhere mostly glabrous, sparsely pilose, or hispid, hairs sometimes papillose-based, margins or throat ciliate, with papillose-based hairs; ligules 0.5-2 mm; blades 10-65 cm long, 3-25 mm wide, glabrous or sparsely pilose, often scabrous near the margins, midribs stout, whitish. |
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 | 4-40 cm, diffuse, lax, with a few spikelets; branches to 15 cm, alternate or opposite, occasionally verticillate, ascending to spreading, stiff, scabrous; pedicels 1-6 mm, sharply 3-angled, scabrous, expanded to cuplike apices, appressed mostly to the abaxial side of the branches. |
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 | 1.8-3.8 mm long, 0.7-1.2 mm wide, ellipsoid to narrowly ovoid, light green to red-purple, glabrous, acute to acuminate. |
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 | 0.6-1.2 mm, 1/4 - 1/3 as long as the spikelets, 0-3-veined, obtuse to acute; upper glumes and lower lemmas similar, exceeding the upper florets by 0.3-0.6 mm, 7-9-veined; lower paleas vestigial to almost as long as the lower lemmas; lower florets sterile; upper florets 1.4-2.5 mm long, 0.7-1.1 mm wide, narrowly ellipsoid, smooth, shiny, stramineous to nigrescent, with pale veins. |
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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2n | = 36, 54. |
= 54. |
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Panicum dichotomiflorum |
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; NE; NH; NJ; NM; NV; NY; OH; OK; OR; PA; RI; SC; SD; TN; TX; UT; VA; VT; WA; WI; WV; HI; PR; BC; NB; NS; ON; QC
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MD |
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Discussion | Panicum dichotomiflorum grows in open, often wet, disturbed areas such as cultivated and fallow fields, roadsides, ditches, open stream banks, receding shores, clearings in flood plain woods, and sometimes in shallow water. It is probably native throughout the eastern United States and adjacent Canada, but introduced elsewhere, including in the western United States. Its size and habit may be partly under genetic control, but these features also seem to be strongly affected by moisture levels, soil richness, competition, and the time of germination. (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, p. 469. | FNA vol. 25, p. 462. | ||||||||
Parent taxa | Poaceae > subfam. Panicoideae > tribe Paniceae > Panicum > subg. Panicum > sect. Dichotomiflora | Poaceae > subfam. Panicoideae > tribe Paniceae > Panicum > subg. Panicum > sect. Panicum | ||||||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||||||
Name authority | Michx. | Trin. | ||||||||
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