Panicum dichotomiflorum |
Panicum trichoides |
|||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
fall panicgrass, fall panicum, knee grass, panic d'automne, smooth witchgrass |
small-flower panicgrass, tropical panicgrass |
|||||||||
Habit | Plants annual or short-lived perennials in the Flora region, perennial in the tropics; usually terrestrial, sometimes aquatic but not floating. | Plants annual. | ||||||||
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. |
15-100 cm tall, 0.5-1(2) mm thick, sprawling to erect, without cormlike bases, freely branching and rooting from the lower nodes; nodes prominent, glabrous or pubescent; internodes not succulent, pilose. |
||||||||
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 than the internodes, rounded, hairs papillose-based; collars pilose; ligules 0.2-0.5 mm; blades 2-7 cm long, 5-20 mm wide, 4-6 times longer than wide, lanceolate, thin, flat, sparsely to densely pilose, hairs papillose-based, bases asymmetrically cordate to subcordate, lower margins ciliate, papillose. |
||||||||
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. |
4-24 cm, almost as wide as long, diffuse, partially included or exerted; primary branches to 10 cm, alternate, ascending to reflexed, branching in the distal 2/3; pedicels 9-20 mm, threadlike. |
||||||||
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. |
1-1.4 mm long, 0.5-0.6 mm wide, not secund, lanceoloid to narrowly ovoid, plano-convex in side view, sparsely pubescent. |
||||||||
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. |
0.4-0.8 mm, 1/3 – 1/2 as long as the spikelets, 1-3-veined, subacute; upper glumes 0.8-1.2 mm, arising 0.2 mm above the lower glumes, 3-5-veined; lower florets sterile; lower lemmas 0.1-0.2 mm longer than the upper glumes, 3-5-veined; lower paleas 0.5-0.8 mm, hyaline; upper florets 0.8-1.2 mm long, 0.4-0.6 mm wide, finely rugose, lemmas strongly convex. |
||||||||
2n | = 36, 54. |
= 18. |
||||||||
Panicum dichotomiflorum |
Panicum trichoides |
|||||||||
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
|
TX; PR; Virgin Islands |
||||||||
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 trichoides grows in moist, often weedy fields, woodlands, and savannahs of Mexico, Central and tropical America, and the Caribbean. It has been found, as a weed, in Brownsville and Austin, Texas, and is probably introduced to the Flora region. It has also been introduced into Africa, tropical Asia, and the Pacific islands. In the Flora region, it flowers from August through October. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
||||||||
Key |
|
|||||||||
Source | FNA vol. 25, p. 469. | FNA vol. 25, p. 485. | ||||||||
Parent taxa | Poaceae > subfam. Panicoideae > tribe Paniceae > Panicum > subg. Panicum > sect. Dichotomiflora | Poaceae > subfam. Panicoideae > tribe Paniceae > Panicum > subg. Phanopyrum > sect. Monticola | ||||||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||||||
Name authority | Michx. | Sw. | ||||||||
Web links |
|