Paspalum malacophyllum |
Paspalum urvillei |
|
---|---|---|
rib paspalum |
Vasey grass, Vasey's grass |
|
Habit | Plants perennial; cespitose, sometimes with short rhizomes. | Plants perennial; cespitose, with a knotty base composed of very short (less than 1 cm) rhizomes. |
Culms | 90-200 cm, erect; nodes sunken, glabrous or pubescent, brown. |
50-220 cm, erect; nodes glabrous or 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(7.7) mm; blades 12-60 cm long, 2-12 mm wide, flat, mostly glabrous, a few long hairs near the base of the adaxial surface. |
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 (4)10-30 racemosely arranged branches; branches 1.2-11.5 cm, divergent; branch axes 0.5-1.1 mm wide, winged, glabrous, margins scabrous, terminating in a spikelet. |
Spikelets | 1.8-2 mm, paired, appressed to or divergent from the branch axes, oblong-elliptic, white to stramineous. |
1.8-2.8 mm long, 1.1-1.5 mm wide, paired, appressed to the branch axes, elliptic to slightly obovate, stramineous (rarely purple). |
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; upper glumes and lower lemmas 3-veined, margins pilose; upper florets stramineous. |
|
Caryopses | 1.2-1.7 mm, white. |
|
Upper | florets white to stramineous. |
|
2n | = 40, 60. |
= 40. |
Paspalum malacophyllum |
Paspalum urvillei |
|
Distribution |
FL; GA; TX |
AL; AR; CA; FL; GA; KS; KY; LA; MO; MS; NC; OK; SC; TN; TX; VA; HI; PR
|
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 urvillei has been introduced to the United States from South America. In the Flora region it grows in disturbed, moist to wet areas, primarily in the southeastern United States. (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. | Steud. |
Web links |