Paspalum malacophyllum |
Paspalum unispicatum |
|
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rib paspalum |
one-spike paspalum |
|
Habit | Plants perennial; cespitose, sometimes with short rhizomes. | Plants perennial; rhizomatous, not rooting at the lower nodes. |
Culms | 90-200 cm, erect; nodes sunken, glabrous or pubescent, brown. |
50-80 cm, erect. |
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, pubescent apically, margins scarious; ligules 1-2 mm, membranous, lacerate; blades 3-4 mm wide, flat, glabrous, pubescent behind the ligules, margins papillose-ciliate. |
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. |
|
Inflorescence | terminal, erect, a spicate raceme 7-15 cm long, or a panicle with 1-2 subterminal spicate branches that are wholly or partially enclosed in the upper sheath, often arcuate; branches terminating in a spikelet. |
|
Spikelets | 1.8-2 mm, paired, appressed to or divergent from the branch axes, oblong-elliptic, white to stramineous. |
2.7-3 mm, paired, imbricate, obovate, stramineous. |
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. |
|
Lower glumes | absent, or 1-2.3 mm; upper glumes and lower lemmas glabrous, 3-veined, margins entire; lower lemma lacking ribs over the veins; lower florets often staminate; lower paleas 2.5-2.9 mm, membranous; upper florets 2.3-2.9 mm, white, stramineous, or golden brown. |
|
Upper | florets white to stramineous. |
|
2n | = 40, 60. |
= 40. |
Paspalum malacophyllum |
Paspalum unispicatum |
|
Distribution |
FL; GA; TX |
TX |
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 unispicatum grows in sandy soil in the coastal plain of Texas and extends southward through Mexico and Central America to Cuba and Paraguay, Uruguay, and Argentina. It has not been reported from Brazil. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 25, p. 584. | FNA vol. 25. |
Parent taxa | Poaceae > subfam. Panicoideae > tribe Paniceae > Paspalum | Poaceae > subfam. Panicoideae > tribe Paniceae > Paspalum |
Sibling taxa | ||
Name authority | Trin. | (Scribn. & Merr.) Nash |
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