Panicum repens
Panicum capillare
couch panicum, creeping panic, panic rampant, torpedo grass, wainaku grass
common panicgrass, common witchgrass, old witch grass, panic capillaire, witch grass, witch panicgrass
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.
15-130 cm, slender to stout, not woody, erect to decumbent, straight to zigzag, simple to profusely branched;
nodes sparsely to densely pilose.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
1.9-4 mm, ellipsoid to lanceoloid, often red-purple, glabrous.
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.
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.
- 36, 40, 45, 54.
= 18.
Panicum repens
Panicum capillare
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.)
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.)
1. Upper florets without a lunate scar, usually stramineous; lower paleas absent; pedicels and secondary branches strongly divergent | subsp. capillare |
1. Upper florets with a lunate scar at the base, usually nigrescent; lower paleas present; pedicels and secondary branches often appressed, varying to narrowly divergent | subsp. hillmanii |
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