Paspalum vaginatum |
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saltwater couch, seashore paspalum |
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Habit | Plants perennial; rhizomatous and/or stoloniferous. |
Culms | 10-79 cm, erect; nodes glabrous. |
Sheaths | glabrous, sparsely long pubescent distally; ligules 1-2 mm; blades 10-19 cm long, 1.4-8 mm wide, flat or conduplicate, glabrous or pubescent, apices involute. |
Panicles | terminal, usually composed of a digitate pair of branches, a third branch sometimes present below; branches 1.1-7.9 cm, diverging to erect; branch axes 0.4-1.4 mm wide, winged, glabrous, margins scabrous, terminating in a spikelet. |
Spikelets | 3-4.5 mm long, 1.1-2 mm wide, solitary, appressed to the branch axes, elliptic-lanceolate, glabrous, light stramineous, apices acute to acuminate. |
Caryopses | 2.8-3.1 mm, yellow. |
Lower | glumes absent (rarely present); upper glumes and lower lemmas glabrous, 3-veined; upper florets white. |
2n | = 20, 40, 60. |
Paspalum vaginatum |
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Distribution |
AL; CA; FL; GA; LA; MS; NC; SC; TX; HI; PR; Virgin Islands
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Discussion | Paspalum vaginatum grows in brackish and salt marshes. It is native to warm, coastal regions around the world, including the Americas. It has been grown for turf and in lawn trials, but is not yet widely used for these purposes. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 25. |
Parent taxa | Poaceae > subfam. Panicoideae > tribe Paniceae > Paspalum |
Sibling taxa | |
Name authority | Sw. |
Web links |