Paspalum laeve |
Paspalum distichum |
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field beadgrass, field paspalum |
knot grass, knotroot paspalum, thompsongrass, water finger-grass |
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Habit | Plants perennial; shortly rhizomatous. | Plants perennial; rhizomatous or cespitose. |
Culms | 40-120 cm, erect; nodes glabrous or pubescent. |
5-65 cm, erect; nodes glabrous. |
Sheaths | glabrous or pubescent; ligules 1.5-3.8 mm; blades to 37 cm long, 2-9.3 mm wide, flat, glabrous or pubescent. |
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. |
Panicles | terminal, with 1-6 racemosely arranged branches; branches 2-10.9 cm, diverging to spreading (rarely erect), persistent; branch axes 0.6-1.3 mm wide, glabrous, margins scabrous, terminating in a spikelet. |
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. |
Spikelets | 2.3-3.3 mm long, 2-2.7 mm wide, solitary, appressed to the branch axes, elliptic to obovate or nearly orbicular, glabrous, stramineous. |
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. |
Lower glumes | absent; upper glumes 3-veined, lower lemmas 5-veined; upper florets pale to stramineous. |
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. |
Caryopses | about 2 mm, white to yellow-brown. |
1.9-2.1 mm, yellow. |
2n | = 20, 58, 70, 80. |
= 20, 30, 40, 48, 60, 61. |
Paspalum laeve |
Paspalum distichum |
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Distribution |
AL; AR; CT; DC; DE; FL; GA; IL; IN; KS; KY; LA; MA; MD; MI; MO; MS; NC; NJ; NY; OH; OK; PA; SC; TN; TX; VA; WV
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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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Discussion | Paspalum laeve is restricted to the eastern United States. It grows at the edges of forests and in disturbed areas. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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.) |
Source | FNA vol. 25, p. 572. | FNA vol. 25, p. 575. |
Parent taxa | Poaceae > subfam. Panicoideae > tribe Paniceae > Paspalum | Poaceae > subfam. Panicoideae > tribe Paniceae > Paspalum |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | P. longipilum, P. laeve var. pilosum, P. laeve var. circulare, P. laeve var. australe, P. circulare | P. paspaloides |
Name authority | Michx. | L. |
Web links |
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