Panicum hirticaule |
Panicum repens |
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Mexican panicgrass, roughstalk witchgrass, roughstalk wltchgrass, woodland panic |
couch panicum, creeping panic, panic rampant, torpedo grass, wainaku grass |
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Habit | Plants annual; glabrous or hispid, hairs papillose-based. | Plants perennial; rhizomatous, forming extensive colonies, rhizomes long, to 5 mm thick, branching, scaly, sharply pointed. | ||||||||
Culms | 11-110 cm, erect to decumbent; nodes shortly hirsute or glabrous. |
20-90 cm tall, 1.8-2.8 mm thick, erect, rigid, simple or branching from the lower and middle nodes; nodes glabrous or sparsely hispid; internodes glabrous. |
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Sheaths | shorter than the internodes, greenish to purplish, glabrous or with papillose-based hairs, ciliate on 1 margin, glabrous on the other; collars hirsute; ligules 1.5-3.5 mm, of hairs; blades 3-30 cm long, 3-30 mm wide, flat, usually hirsute or sparsely pubescent, hairs papillose-based, sometimes glabrous, bases rounded to cordate-clasping, margins ciliate, cilia papillose-based, apices acute. |
generally shorter than the internodes, not keeled, lower nodes glabrous or hispid, hairs papillose-based, particularly near the summits; ligules 0.5-1 mm; blades 3-25 cm long, 2-8 mm wide, often distichous, flat to slightly involute, firm, adaxial surfaces pilose basally, glabrous or sparsely pubescent abaxially. |
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Panicles | 9-30 cm long, 5-8 cm wide, erect or nodding, partially included to well-exserted, rachises glabrous or sparsely hispid basally; primary branches usually alternate to opposite, divergent, secondary branches and pedicels confined to the distal 2/3; pulvini inconspicuous; secondary branches appressed; pedicels 9-27 mm, appressed. |
3-24 cm long, usually less than 5 cm wide, open; primary branches 2-11 cm, alternate, few, stiffly ascending to spreading; pedicels 1-6 mm, subappressed. |
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Spikelets | 1.9-4 mm long, 0.8-1 mm wide, ovoid to almost spherical, often reddish-brown, glabrous, veins prominent, scabridulous, apices abruptly acuminate. |
2.2-2.8 mm long, 0.8-1.3 mm wide, ellipsoid-ovoid, pale green, acute, upper glumes and lower lemmas sometimes separating (gaping) beyond the florets. |
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Lower glumes | 1.3-2.4 mm, 1/2 - 3/4 as long as the spikelets, 3-5-veined; upper glumes 1.8-3.3 mm, 7-11-veined; lower florets sterile; lower lemmas similar to the upper glumes, 9-veined; lower paleas 0.4-0.9 mm; upper florets 1.5-2.4 mm long, 0.4-0.8 mm wide, ellipsoid, smooth or conspicuously papillate, shiny, stramineous, often with a lunate scar at the base. |
0.5-1 mm, 1/5 – 2/5 as long as the spikelets, glabrous, faintly 1-5-veined, subtruncate to broadly acute; upper glumes and lower lemmas glabrous, extending 0.1-0.5 mm beyond the upper florets, scarcely separated; upper glumes 7-11-veined, shorter than the lower lemmas, acute to short-acuminate; lower florets staminate; lower lemmas 7-11-veined; lower paleas 1.9-2.1 mm, oblong; upper florets 1.8-2.7 mm long, 0.7-1.3 mm wide, broadly ellipsoid, broadest at or above the middle, glabrous, shiny, smooth, apices rounded. |
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2n | - 36, 40, 45, 54. |
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Panicum hirticaule |
Panicum repens |
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Distribution |
AZ; CA; NM; NV; OK; TX; WA
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AL; CA; FL; GA; LA; MS; NC; SC; TX; HI
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Discussion | Panicum hirticaule grows in rocky or sandy soils in waste places, roadsides, ravines, and wet meadows along streams. Its range extends from southeastern California and southwestern Texas southward through Mexico, Central America, Cuba, and Hispaniola to western South America and Argentina. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Panicum repens grows on open, moist, sandy beaches and the shores of lakes and ponds, occasionally extending out into or onto the water. It is mostly, but not exclusively, coastal. It grows on tropical and subtropical coasts throughout the world and may have been introduced to the Americas from elsewhere. Small plants having small, dense panicles of purplish spikelets with longer, subacute lower glumes have been named Panicum gouinii E. Fourn., but they intergrade with more typical plants and do not seem to merit taxonomic recognition. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 25, p. 460. | FNA vol. 25. | ||||||||
Parent taxa | Poaceae > subfam. Panicoideae > tribe Paniceae > Panicum > subg. Panicum > sect. Panicum | Poaceae > subfam. Panicoideae > tribe Paniceae > Panicum > subg. Panicum > sect. Repentia | ||||||||
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Subordinate taxa | ||||||||||
Synonyms | P. pampinosum | |||||||||
Name authority | J. Presl | L. | ||||||||
Web links |