Paspalum malacophyllum |
Paspalum repens |
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rib paspalum |
water paspalum |
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Habit | Plants perennial; cespitose, sometimes with short rhizomes. | Plants annual; aquatic, floating or rhizomatous. |
Culms | 90-200 cm, erect; nodes sunken, glabrous or pubescent, brown. |
4-55 cm, erect; nodes pubescent. |
Sheaths | pubescent; ligules 4-5 mm, membranous, brown, acute; blades 12-40 cm long, 8-35 mm wide, flat or conduplicate, pubescent below, glabrous above, distinctly pubescent basally. |
glabrous or pubescent; ligules 1-4 mm; blades 10-40 cm long, 8-22 mm wide, flat, glabrous or sparsely pubescent. |
Panicles | terminal, with 8-25 racemosely arranged branches; branches 1-8 cm, divergent to erect; branch axes 1-1.2 mm wide, margins scabrous, terminating in a spikelet; pedicels 0.2-0.4 and 0.5-1.2 mm long, flattened, scabrous. |
terminal, with (7)20-70 racemosely arranged branches; branches 1.2-9.5 cm, diverging to spreading, occasionally arcuate, disarticulating at maturity; branch axes 0.7-1.5 mm wide, broadly winged, glabrous, margins scabrous, extending beyond the distal spikelet. |
Spikelets | 1.8-2 mm, paired, appressed to or divergent from the branch axes, oblong-elliptic, white to stramineous. |
1.1-1.9 mm long, 0.5-0.8 mm wide, solitary, appressed to the branch axes, elliptic, pubescent, white. |
Glumes | absent; lower lemmas glabrous, ribbed over the veins, sulcate between, 5-veined, margins entire; upper lemmas as long as the lower ones, longitudinally papillose-striate, glabrous, pale-colored. |
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Lower glumes | absent; upper glumes and lower lemmas veinless; upper florets white. |
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Caryopses | 0.8-0.9 mm, translucent, white. |
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Upper | florets white to stramineous. |
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2n | = 40, 60. |
= 20. |
Paspalum malacophyllum |
Paspalum repens |
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Distribution |
FL; GA; TX |
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Discussion | Paspalum malacophyllum is native from Mexico to Bolivia and Argentina. It was introduced to the southern United States for forage and soil conservation, and is now established in the southeastern United States, growing in disturbed sites at scattered locations. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Paspalum repens is a native species that grows along the edges of lakes, streams, and roadside ditches in the southeastern United States. Its range extends through tropical America to Peru, Bolivia, and Argentina. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 25, p. 584. | FNA vol. 25, p. 571. |
Parent taxa | Poaceae > subfam. Panicoideae > tribe Paniceae > Paspalum | Poaceae > subfam. Panicoideae > tribe Paniceae > Paspalum |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | P. repens var. fluitans, P. fluitans | |
Name authority | Trin. | P.J. Bergius |
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