Urochloa mutica |
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para grass |
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Habit | Plants perennial; stoloniferous, straggling. |
Culms | to 5 m long, long-decumbent and rooting at the lower nodes, vertical portion 90-200(300) cm; nodes villous. |
Panicles | 10-25 cm long, 5-10 cm wide, pyramidal, with 10-30 spikelike branches in more than 2 ranks; primary branches 2.5-8 cm long, 0.4-0.9 mm wide, ascending to divergent, axils pubescent, axes flat, glabrous or with a few papillose-based hairs, secondary branches present or absent; pedicels shorter than the spikelets, scabrous, sometimes with hairs. |
Spikelets | 2.6-3.5 mm long, 1-1.4 mm wide, mostly in pairs, in 2-4 rows, appressed to the branches, purplish to green. |
Glumes | scarcely separate, rachilla internodes short not pronounced; lower glumes 0.6-1.1 mm, 1/5 – 1/3 as long as the spikelets, glabrous, 0-1(3)-veined; upper glumes 2.6-3.5 mm, glabrous, 5-(7)-veined, without cross venation; lower florets staminate; lower lemmas 2.6-3.3 mm, glabrous, 5-veined, without cross venation; upper lemmas 2.3-2.8 mm long, 1-1.3 mm wide, apices rounded, mucronate; anthers 1-1.5 mm. |
Caryopses | 1.8-2 mm. |
Lower | sheaths with papillose-based hairs, these more dense distally, margins ciliate; collars pubescent; ligules 1-1.5 mm; blades 7.5-35 cm long, 4-20 mm wide, glabrous or sparsely pilose on both surfaces, margins scabrous. |
2n | = 18, 36. |
Urochloa mutica |
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Distribution |
AL; FL; MD; OR; SC; TX; HI; PR; Virgin Islands |
Discussion | An African species, Urochloa mutica is grown as a forage crop throughout the tropics, but it tends to become weedy. It grows on moist, disturbed soils and is established in the southeastern United States. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 25, p. 494. |
Parent taxa | Poaceae > subfam. Panicoideae > tribe Paniceae > Urochloa |
Sibling taxa | |
Synonyms | Panicum purpurascens, Brachiaria mutica |
Name authority | (Forssk.) T.Q. Nguyen |
Web links |