Panicum repens
Panicum lacustre
couch panicum, creeping panic, panic rampant, torpedo grass, wainaku grass
cypress-swamp panicum, lakeshore 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.
100-150 cm, erect, succulent, with short innovations;
nodes glabrous;
internodes glabrous.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
2-2.2 mm, 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.
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.
- 36, 40, 45, 54.
= unknown.
Panicum repens
Panicum lacustre
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 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.)
CalFlora
LA Plants
WildflowerSearch
iNaturalist
USDA Plants Database
