Paspalum plicatulum |
Paspalum distichum |
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brownseed paspalum |
knot grass, knotroot paspalum, thompsongrass, water finger-grass |
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Habit | Plants perennial; shortly rhizomatous, often indistinctly so. | Plants perennial; rhizomatous or cespitose. |
Culms | 30-110 cm, stout, erect; nodes glabrous. |
5-65 cm, erect; nodes glabrous. |
Sheaths | glabrous; ligules 2-3 mm; blades to 35 cm long, 2-5.4 mm wide, conduplicate (rarely flat). |
glabrous, sparsely long pubescent distally; ligules 1-2 mm; blades to 14 cm long, 1.8-11.5 mm wide, flat or conduplicate, glabrous or pubescent, apices involute. |
Panicles | terminal, with 2-7 racemosely arranged branches; branches 1.6-7.1 cm, usually divergent, rarely merely ascending; branch axes 0.6-1.1 mm wide, glabrous, terminating in a spikelet. |
terminal, usually composed of a digitate pair of branches, a third branch sometimes present below; branches 1.4-7 cm, diverging, often arcuate; branch axes 1.2-2.2 mm wide, winged, glabrous, margins scabrous, terminating in a spikelet. |
Spikelets | 2.5-3 mm long, 1.5-2.2 mm wide, paired, appressed to the branch axes, elliptic-ovate, light to dark brown. |
2.4-3.2 mm long, 1.1-1.6 mm wide, solitary (rarely paired), appressed to the branch axes, broadly elliptic, stramineous, sometimes partially purple. |
Lower glumes | absent; upper glumes usually with short, appressed pubescence, rarely glabrous, 5-veined, margins entire; lower lemmas with short, appressed pubescence or glabrous, 3-veined, margins entire; upper florets dark glossy brown. |
absent or, if present, to 1 mm and triangular; upper glumes sparsely and shortly pubescent on the back, 3-veined; lower lemmas glabrous, 3-veined; upper florets stramineous. |
Caryopses | 1.4-1.6 mm, brown. |
1.9-2.1 mm, yellow. |
2n | = 20, 40, 60. |
= 20, 30, 40, 48, 60, 61. |
Paspalum plicatulum |
Paspalum distichum |
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Distribution |
AL; FL; GA; LA; MS; SC; TX; PR; Virgin Islands
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AL; AR; AZ; CA; FL; GA; ID; KS; KY; LA; MD; MO; MS; NC; NJ; NM; NV; OK; OR; PA; SC; TN; TX; UT; VA; WA; HI; PR; Virgin Islands
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Discussion | Paspalum plicatulum grows in prairies, along forest margins, and in disturbed areas. Its range extends from the southeastern United States through the Caribbean and Mexico to Bolivia, Paraguay, and Argentina. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Paspalum distichum grows on the edges of lakes, ponds, rice fields, and wet roadside ditches. It is native in warm regions throughout the world, being most abundant in humid areas. In the Western Hemisphere, it grows from the United States to Argentina and Chile. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 25, p. 581. | FNA vol. 25, p. 575. |
Parent taxa | ||
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | P. texanum | P. paspaloides |
Name authority | Michx. | L. |
Web links |
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