Paspalum notatum
Paspalum modestum
bahia grass
water paspalum
20-110 cm, erect;
nodes glabrous.
30-110 cm, decumbent and rooting at the lower nodes;
nodes glabrous.
glabrous or pubescent;
ligules 0.2-0.5 mm;
blades 5-31 cm long, 2-10 mm wide, flat or conduplicate, glabrous or pubescent.
glabrous;
ligules 1-2.3 mm;
blades to 50 cm long, 2-10 mm wide, flat, glabrous or pubescent.
terminal, usually composed of a digitate pair of branches, 1-3 additional branches sometimes present below the terminal pair;
branches 3-15 cm, diverging to erect;
branch axes 0.7-1.8 mm wide, narrowly winged, glabrous, margins scabrous, terminating in a spikelet, distal spikelets sometimes reduced.
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.
2.5-4 mm long, 2-2.8 mm wide, solitary, appressed to the branch axes, broadly elliptic to ovate or obovate, glabrous, light stramineous to white, apices obtuse to broadly acute.
2.5-3 mm long, 1.3-1.6 mm wide, paired, appressed to the branch axes, elliptic, light brown.
2-3 mm, white.
1.6-1.8 mm, brown.
glumes absent;
upper glumes glabrous, 5-veined;
lower lemmas 5-veined, margins inrolled;
upper florets light yellow to white.
glumes 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.
= 20, 30, 40.
= 20, 30, 40.
Paspalum notatum
Paspalum modestum
Paspalum notatum is native from Mexico through the Caribbean and Central America to Brazil and northern Argentina. It was introduced to the United States for forage, turf, and erosion control. It is now established, generally being found in disturbed areas and at the edges of forests in the southeastern United States.
Paspalum notatum is sometimes treated as having distinct varieties. They are not recognized here because the variation among them is continuous. A number of cultivars have been developed for use as turf grasses; among these cultivars are 'Common Bahiagrass', 'Pensacola Bahiagrass', and 'Argentine Bahiagrass'.
(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.)
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