Paspalum distichum |
Paspalum floridanum |
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knot grass, knotroot paspalum, thompsongrass, water finger-grass |
Florida paspalum |
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Habit | Plants perennial; rhizomatous or cespitose. | Plants perennial; rhizomatous. |
Culms | 5-65 cm, erect; nodes glabrous. |
80-210 cm, erect; nodes glabrous or pubescent. |
Sheaths | glabrous, sparsely long pubescent distally; ligules 1-2 mm; blades to 14 cm long, 1.8-11.5 mm wide, flat or conduplicate, glabrous or pubescent, apices involute. |
glabrous or pubescent; ligules 1.2-3.3 mm; blades to 52 cm long, 3-18 mm wide, flat, glabrous or pubescent, usually densely pubescent behind the ligules. |
Panicles | terminal, usually composed of a digitate pair of branches, a third branch sometimes present below; branches 1.4-7 cm, diverging, often arcuate; branch axes 1.2-2.2 mm wide, winged, glabrous, margins scabrous, terminating in a spikelet. |
terminal, with 1-6 racemosely arranged branches; branches 3-17.9 cm, divergent to erect, terminating in a spikelet; branch axes 0.3-1.8 mm wide, glabrous, the margins scabrous. |
Spikelets | 2.4-3.2 mm long, 1.1-1.6 mm wide, solitary (rarely paired), appressed to the branch axes, broadly elliptic, stramineous, sometimes partially purple. |
2.9-4.1 mm long, 1.9-3.1 mm wide, paired, imbricate, appressed to the branch axes, elliptic to suborbicular to orbicular, glabrous, stramineous. |
Lower glumes | absent or, if present, to 1 mm and triangular; upper glumes sparsely and shortly pubescent on the back, 3-veined; lower lemmas glabrous, 3-veined; upper florets stramineous. |
absent; upper glumes glabrous, 5-veined, margins entire; lower lemmas glabrous, lacking ribs over the veins, 3-veined, margins entire; upper florets golden brown. |
Caryopses | 1.9-2.1 mm, yellow. |
2.8 mm, amber. |
2n | = 20, 30, 40, 48, 60, 61. |
= 120, 140, ca. 160-170. |
Paspalum distichum |
Paspalum floridanum |
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Distribution |
AL; AR; AZ; CA; FL; GA; ID; KS; KY; LA; MD; MO; MS; NC; NJ; NM; NV; OK; OR; PA; SC; TN; TX; UT; VA; WA; HI; PR; Virgin Islands
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AL; AR; DC; DE; FL; GA; IL; IN; KS; KY; LA; MD; MO; MS; NC; NJ; OH; OK; PA; SC; TN; TX; VA
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Discussion | Paspalum distichum grows on the edges of lakes, ponds, rice fields, and wet roadside ditches. It is native in warm regions throughout the world, being most abundant in humid areas. In the Western Hemisphere, it grows from the United States to Argentina and Chile. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Paspalum floridanum grows along the edges of forests, flatwoods, and pinewoods and in open areas. It is a frequent component of dry-mesic soils in longleaf pine-oak-grass ecosystems, and is restricted to the eastern United States. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 25, p. 575. | FNA vol. 25, p. 599. |
Parent taxa | Poaceae > subfam. Panicoideae > tribe Paniceae > Paspalum | Poaceae > subfam. Panicoideae > tribe Paniceae > Paspalum |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | P. paspaloides | P. longicilium, P. floridanum var. glabratum, P. difforme |
Name authority | L. | Michx. |
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