Paspalum distichum |
Paspalum modestum |
|
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knot grass, knotroot paspalum, thompsongrass, water finger-grass |
water paspalum |
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Habit | Plants perennial; rhizomatous or cespitose. | Plants perennial; usually sprawling, occasionally cespitose. |
Culms | 5-65 cm, erect; nodes glabrous. |
30-110 cm, decumbent and rooting at the lower nodes; nodes glabrous. |
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; ligules 1-2.3 mm; blades to 50 cm long, 2-10 mm wide, flat, glabrous or pubescent. |
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 2-6(10) racemosely arranged branches; branches 3.5-12.5 cm, diverging to erect; branch axes 1-2.1 mm wide, glabrous, terminating in a spikelet. |
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. |
2.5-3 mm long, 1.3-1.6 mm wide, paired, appressed to the branch axes, elliptic, light brown. |
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. |
often present, 0.5-2 mm, brown; upper glumes glabrous, 5-veined, margins entire, lower lemmas glabrous, 5-7-veined, margins entire; upper florets olive, golden brown, or dark brown. |
Caryopses | 1.9-2.1 mm, yellow. |
1.6-1.8 mm, brown. |
2n | = 20, 30, 40, 48, 60, 61. |
= 20, 30, 40. |
Paspalum distichum |
Paspalum modestum |
|
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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LA; TX |
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 modestum grows in wet roadside ditches and rice fields of Texas and southern Louisiana. It was introduced to the United States from South America. Plants with pale florets may key to P. lividum, which differs from P. modestum in having shorter ligules. Until recently, plants belonging to Paspalum modestum have been called P. hydrophilum Henrard in North America, but experimental studies have shown that the two species are quite distinct and that North American plants belong to P. modestum. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 25, p. 575. | FNA vol. 25, p. 579. |
Parent taxa | Poaceae > subfam. Panicoideae > tribe Paniceae > Paspalum | Poaceae > subfam. Panicoideae > tribe Paniceae > Paspalum |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | P. paspaloides | P. hydrophilum |
Name authority | L. | Mez |
Web links |
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