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warty panicgrass

vine mesquite

Habit Plants annual; weak, ascending or sprawling. Plants perennial; usually from long slender stolons or shallow rhizomes with swollen, villous nodes.
Culms

10-150 cm, slender, wiry, erect at first, ultimately decumbent, sprawling, glabrous, often with purple dots and streaks, branching extensively at the base, rooting at the lower nodes.

20-80 cm, often in small clumps, compressed, erect or decumbent, glaucous;

lower nodes pubescent;

upper nodes glabrous.

Sheaths

often shorter than the internodes, loose, glabrous, margins short-ciliate;

ligules 0.2-0.5 mm, membranous, erose, ciliate;

blades 5-20 cm long, 3-10 mm wide, thin, flat, glabrous on both surfaces, margins scabridulous, apices long-acuminate.

Panicles

5-30 cm, nearly as wide as long;

branches few, capillary, with a few spikelets distally;

pedicels 0.5-10 mm.

5-15 cm long, 0.8-1.5 cm wide;

branches 2-6, spikelike, erect, puberulent, 3-angled; ultimate branchlets 1-sided;

pedicels paired, congested, shorter pedicels 0.1-1 mm, longer pedicels 1.5-2.5 mm.

Spikelets

1.7-2.2 mm long, about 1 mm wide, ellipsoid or obovoid, glabrous, faintly veined, subacute or obtuse at the apices.

2.8-4.4 mm, ellipsoid, terete to slightly laterally compressed, glabrous, obtuse.

Lower glumes

0.3-0.8 mm, reduced, acute;

upper glumes and lower lemmas subequal or the glumes shorter, distinctly verrucose, with hemispheric warts;

upper florets 1.6-2 mm long, about 1 mm wide, grayish-brown, dull, minutely papillose, acute.

about 3/4 as long as the spikelets, 5- or 7-veined;

upper glumes and lower lemmas equaling the spikelets, 5-9-veined;

lower florets staminate;

lower paleas 2.5-3.5 mm;

upper florets puberulent at the bases and apices.

Lower

sheaths ascending, pubescent to pilose;

upper sheaths glabrous;

ligules 0.2-2 mm, membranous, truncate, irregularly denticulate;

blades 3-26 cm long, 2-7 mm wide, ascending, firm, glaucous, sparsely pilose near the base, often scabrous on the margins, involute towards the apices.

2n

= 36.

= 20, 36, 40.

Panicum verrucosum

Panicum obtusum

Distribution
from FNA
AL; AR; CT; DC; DE; FL; GA; IL; IN; KY; LA; MA; MD; MI; MO; MS; NC; NJ; NY; OH; OK; PA; RI; SC; TN; TX; VA; WV
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from FNA
AR; AZ; CO; IL; KS; MO; NM; OK; TX; UT
[WildflowerSearch map]
Discussion

Panicum verrucosum grows primarily in open, moist or wet sandy areas bordering swamps, marshes, or lakes or on roadside ditches; it also grows occasionally in open, drier woodlands. It is restricted to the eastern United States and is mostly, but not exclusively, coastal.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Panicum obtusum grows in seasonally wet sand or gravel, especially on stream banks, ditches, roadsides, wet pastures, and rangeland. Its range extends from the southwestern United States to central Mexico. Flowering is from May through October.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Source FNA vol. 25, p. 487. FNA vol. 25, p. 481.
Parent taxa Poaceae > subfam. Panicoideae > tribe Paniceae > Panicum > subg. Phanopyrum > sect. Verrucosa Poaceae > subfam. Panicoideae > tribe Paniceae > Panicum > subg. Agrostoidea > sect. Obtusa
Sibling taxa
P. amarum, P. anceps, P. antidotale, P. bergii, P. bisulcatum, P. brachyanthum, P. bulbosum, P. capillare, P. capillarioides, P. coloratum, P. dichotomiflorum, P. diffusum, P. flexile, P. ghiesbreghtii, P. gymnocarpon, P. hallii, P. hemitomon, P. hirsutum, P. hirticaule, P. lacustre, P. miliaceum, P. mohavense, P. obtusum, P. paludosum, P. philadelphicum, P. plenum, P. psilopodium, P. repens, P. rigidulum, P. tenerum, P. trichoides, P. urvilleanum, P. virgatum
P. amarum, P. anceps, P. antidotale, P. bergii, P. bisulcatum, P. brachyanthum, P. bulbosum, P. capillare, P. capillarioides, P. coloratum, P. dichotomiflorum, P. diffusum, P. flexile, P. ghiesbreghtii, P. gymnocarpon, P. hallii, P. hemitomon, P. hirsutum, P. hirticaule, P. lacustre, P. miliaceum, P. mohavense, P. paludosum, P. philadelphicum, P. plenum, P. psilopodium, P. repens, P. rigidulum, P. tenerum, P. trichoides, P. urvilleanum, P. verrucosum, P. virgatum
Synonyms P. debile
Name authority Muhl. Kunth
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