Flora of North America species comparison

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Paspalum notatum

Paspalum setaceum

bahia grass

fringeleaf paspalum, sand paspalum, slender beadgrass, slender crown grass, thin paspalum
Habit Plants perennial; rhizomatous. Plants perennial; cespitose or shortly rhizomatous.
Culms

20-110 cm, erect;

nodes glabrous.

25-110 cm, erect, spreading, or prostrate;

nodes glabrous or pubescent.
Sheaths

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 or pubescent;

ligules 0.2-0.5 mm;

blades flat, glabrous or pubescent.
Panicles

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 and axillary, with 1-6 racemosely axillary arranged branches, panicles partially or completely enclosed by the subtending leaf sheath;

branches 2-12(17) cm, ascending to spreading, often arcuate, terminating in a spikelet;

branch axes 0.2-1.2 mm wide, glabrous, sometimes scabrous.
Spikelets

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.

1.4-2.6 mm long, paired, imbricate, appressed to the branch axes, elliptic to obovate to ovate to orbicular, stramineous or brown.
Caryopses

2-3 mm, white.

elliptic to suborbicular, white.
Lower

glumes absent;

upper glumes glabrous, 5-veined;

lower lemmas 5-veined, margins inrolled;

upper florets light yellow to white.

glumes absent;

upper glumes and lower lemmas glabrous or shortly glandular-pubescent, 3-veined, margins entire;

lower lemmas lacking ribs over the veins;

upper florets stramineous.
2n

= 20, 30, 40.

= 20.

Paspalum notatum

Paspalum setaceum
Distribution
from FNA
AL; AR; CA; FL; GA; IL; LA; MS; NC; NJ; OK; SC; TN; TX; VA; HI; PR; Virgin Islands
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
from FNA
AL; AR; AZ; CO; CT; DC; DE; FL; GA; IA; IL; IN; KS; KY; LA; MA; MD; MI; MN; MO; MS; MT; NC; NE; NH; NJ; NM; NY; OH; OK; PA; RI; SC; SD; TN; TX; VA; VT; WI; WV; PR; ON
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

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 setaceum is a variable species that grows east of the Rocky Mountains in the contiguous United States and Mexico. The following treatment summarizes the major patterns of variation within the species. Some specimens will be hard to place, particularly old herbarium specimens that have lost their color. Nine varieties grow in the Flora region.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Key
1. Leaf blades conspicuously basal, recurved, 3-10 mm wide; lower lemmas without evident midveins.
→ 2
2. Leaf blades yellowish-green, usually glabrous; spikelets usually glabrous, not spotted
var. longepedunculatum
2. Leaf blades grayish-green, hirsute; spikelets short pubescent, often spotted
var. villosissimutn
1. Leaf blades more evenly distributed, lax to straight, 1.5-20 mm wide; lower lemmas with or without evident midveins.
→ 3
3. Leaf blades glabrous (or almost so) on the surfaces, sometimes ciliate on the margins.
→ 4
4. Leaf blades 2.4-6.1 mm wide, stiff; spikelets 2-2.6 mm long
var. rigidifolium
4. Leaf blades 3-18 mm wide, lax to somewhat stiff but, if somewhat stiff, more than 6 mm wide; spikelets 1.7-2.4 mm long.
→ 5
5. Lower lemmas without evident midveins; blades yellowish-green to dark green
var. stramineum
5. Lower lemmas with evident midveins; blades dark green to purplish
var. ciliatifolium
3. Leaf blades evidently hirsute on the surfaces as well as on the margins.
→ 6
6. Plants widely spreading to prostrate.
→ 7
7. Leaf blades grayish-green; lower lemmas without evident midveins
var. psammophilum
7. Leaf blades yellowish-green; lower lemmas with or without evident midveins
var. supinum
6. Plants erect to spreading.
→ 8
8. Lower lemmas usually with evident midveins; spikelets 1.8-2.5 mm long, usually glabrous, light green to green
var. muhlenbergii
8. Lower lemmas usually without evident midveins; spikelets 1.4-2.4 mm long, usually pubescent, pale yellow to light green.
→ 9
9. Leaves grayish-green; blades 1.5-7 mm wide, always conspicuously hirsute
var. setaceum
9. Leaves yellowish-green to dark green; blades 3.3-13.5 mm wide, almost glabrous or conspicuously hirsute
var. stramineum
Source FNA vol. 25, p. 575. FNA vol. 25.
Parent taxa Poaceae > subfam. Panicoideae > tribe Paniceae > Paspalum Poaceae > subfam. Panicoideae > tribe Paniceae > Paspalum
Sibling taxa
P. acuminatum, P. almum, P. bifidum, P. blodgettii, P. boscianum, P. caespitosum, P. conjugatum, P. conspersum, P. convexum, P. coryphaeum, P. dilatatum, P. dissectum, P. distichum, P. fimbriatum, P. floridanum, P. hartwegianum, P. intermedium, P. laeve, P. langei, P. laxum, P. lividum, P. malacophyllum, P. minus, P. modestum, P. monostachyum, P. nicorae, P. paniculatum, P. pleostachyum, P. plicatulum, P. praecox, P. pubiflorum, P. quadrifarium, P. racemosum, P. repens, P. scrobiculatum, P. setaceum, P. unispicatum, P. urvillei, P. vaginatum, P. virgatum, P. virletii, P. wrightii
P. acuminatum, P. almum, P. bifidum, P. blodgettii, P. boscianum, P. caespitosum, P. conjugatum, P. conspersum, P. convexum, P. coryphaeum, P. dilatatum, P. dissectum, P. distichum, P. fimbriatum, P. floridanum, P. hartwegianum, P. intermedium, P. laeve, P. langei, P. laxum, P. lividum, P. malacophyllum, P. minus, P. modestum, P. monostachyum, P. nicorae, P. notatum, P. paniculatum, P. pleostachyum, P. plicatulum, P. praecox, P. pubiflorum, P. quadrifarium, P. racemosum, P. repens, P. scrobiculatum, P. unispicatum, P. urvillei, P. vaginatum, P. virgatum, P. virletii, P. wrightii
Subordinate taxa
P. setaceum var. ciliatifolium, P. setaceum var. longepedunculatum, P. setaceum var. muhlenbergii, P. setaceum var. psammophilum, P. setaceum var. rigidifolium, P. setaceum var. setaceum, P. setaceum var. stramineum, P. setaceum var. supinum, P. setaceum var. villosissimutn
Synonyms P. notatum var. latiflorum, P. notatum var. saurae
Name authority Flüggé Michx.
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



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