Panicum flexile |
Panicum lacustre |
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panic flexible, wiry panic grass, wiry witch grass |
cypress-swamp panicum, lakeshore panicgrass |
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Habit | Plants annual; delicate, green or yellow-green. | Plants perennial; emergent aquatic or terrestrial, rooting at the lower nodes. |
Culms | 10-75 cm, about 1 mm thick, simple or with erect basal branches; nodes densely pilose, hairs ascending; internodes glabrous or shortly pubescent distally. |
100-150 cm, erect, succulent, with short innovations; nodes glabrous; internodes glabrous. |
Sheaths | longer than the internodes, green to purplish, hispid, margins sparsely ciliate; ligules 0.5-1.5 mm; blades 3-32 cm long, 1-7 mm wide, ascending to erect, linear, narrowing basally, flat or the margins involute, surfaces sparsely hirsute or pilose (rarely glabrous), hairs near the base papillose-based, margins prominent, apices acute. |
compressed, not keeled, overlapping but narrow, exposing the nodes, bladeless and glabrous or sparsely pilose below the water; ligules 1-2 mm, membranous, ciliate; blades 1-30 cm long, 2-4 mm wide, narrow, linear, flat or folded, abaxial surfaces sparsely pubescent, adaxial surfaces sparsely pilose. |
Panicles | 5-45 cm long, 1-6 cm wide, at least 1/2 as long as the plants and 3 times longer than wide, open; rachises glabrous; primary branches usually alternate or subopposite, ascending to slightly divergent, secondary branches and pedicels attached to the distal 2/3; secondary branches diverging; pedicels 0.5-17 mm, ascending to appressed. |
10-30 cm, open, with many spikelets; primary branches fascicled at the base of the panicles, solitary and distant distally; pedicels 1-4 mm, sharply 3-angled, appressed. |
Spikelets | 2.5 - 3.7 mm long, 0.6-1.1 mm wide, narrowly ovoid, glabrous, acute; lower glumes 0.8-1.3 mm, 1/3 – 1/2 as long as the spikelets, acuminate; upper glumes 2.3-3.3 mm, 7-9-veined, exceeding the upper florets by about 0.6 mm; lower florets sterile; lower lemmas 2.2-2.7 mm, exceeding the upper florets by about 0.6 mm, 7- or 9-veined, apices scabridulous, pointed; lower paleas absent; upper florets 1.6-1.7 mm long, about 0.6 mm wide, usually smooth, usually pale, sometimes becoming dark at maturity. |
2-2.2 mm, glabrous. |
Lower glumes | truncate to broadly triangular, 1/4 as long as the spikelets, 3-veined; lower paleas absent; upper glumes and lower lemmas equal, slightly exceeding the upper florets, 5- or 7-veined, pointed; lower florets sterile; upper florets relatively thin, smooth. |
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2n | = 18. |
= unknown. |
Panicum flexile |
Panicum lacustre |
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Distribution |
AL; AR; CT; DC; FL; GA; IA; IL; IN; KS; KY; LA; MA; MD; MI; MN; MO; MS; NC; ND; NJ; NY; OH; OK; PA; SC; SD; TN; TX; UT; VA; VT; WI; WV; ON; QC
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FL |
Discussion | Panicum flexile grows in fens and other calcareous wetlands, in dry, calcareous or mafic rock barrens, and in open woodlands, especially on limestone derived soils. It is restricted to the Flora region. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Panicum lacustre grows in shallow water or wet soil at the edge of cypress ponds in the Everglades of southern Florida. It also grows in Cuba. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 25, p. 460. | FNA vol. 25, p. 467. |
Parent taxa | Poaceae > subfam. Panicoideae > tribe Paniceae > Panicum > subg. Panicum > sect. Panicum | Poaceae > subfam. Panicoideae > tribe Paniceae > Panicum > subg. Panicum > sect. Dichotomiflora |
Sibling taxa | ||
Name authority | (Gatt.) Scribn. | Hitchc. & Ekman |
Web links |