Paspalum setaceum |
Paspalum notatum |
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fringeleaf paspalum, sand paspalum, slender beadgrass, slender crown grass, thin paspalum |
bahia grass |
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Habit | Plants perennial; cespitose or shortly rhizomatous. | Plants perennial; rhizomatous. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Culms | 25-110 cm, erect, spreading, or prostrate; nodes glabrous or pubescent. |
20-110 cm, erect; nodes glabrous. |
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Sheaths | glabrous or pubescent; ligules 0.2-0.5 mm; blades flat, glabrous or pubescent. |
glabrous or pubescent; ligules 0.2-0.5 mm; blades 5-31 cm long, 2-10 mm wide, flat or conduplicate, glabrous or pubescent. |
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Panicles | 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. |
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. |
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Spikelets | 1.4-2.6 mm long, paired, imbricate, appressed to the branch axes, elliptic to obovate to ovate to orbicular, stramineous or brown. |
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. |
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Lower 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. |
absent; upper glumes glabrous, 5-veined; lower lemmas 5-veined, margins inrolled; upper florets light yellow to white. |
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Caryopses | elliptic to suborbicular, white. |
2-3 mm, white. |
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2n | = 20. |
= 20, 30, 40. |
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Paspalum setaceum |
Paspalum notatum |
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Distribution |
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
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AL; AR; CA; FL; GA; IL; LA; MS; NC; NJ; OK; SC; TN; TX; VA; HI; PR; Virgin Islands
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Discussion | 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.) |
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.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 25. | FNA vol. 25, p. 575. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Parent taxa | Poaceae > subfam. Panicoideae > tribe Paniceae > Paspalum | Poaceae > subfam. Panicoideae > tribe Paniceae > Paspalum | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Synonyms | P. notatum var. latiflorum, P. notatum var. saurae | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Name authority | Michx. | Flüggé | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Web links |
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