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para grass

armgrass millet

Habit Plants perennial; stoloniferous, straggling. Plants annual or short-lived perennials.
Culms

to 5 m long, long-decumbent and rooting at the lower nodes, vertical portion 90-200(300) cm;

nodes villous.

10-70 cm, decumbent, branching and rooting at the lower nodes;

nodes glabrous;

internodes glabrous or sparsely pilose distally.

Sheaths

mostly pubescent or glabrous, margins ciliate;

ligules 0.5-1.3 mm;

blades 2-15(27) cm long, 3-10 (12) mm wide, glabrous or pubescent;

margins scabrous, sometimes ciliate basally;

bases subcordate, not clasping the stems.

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.

2.5-13(22) cm, with 3-6(9) spikelike primary branches in 2 ranks;

primary branches 2-7 cm, ascending to reflexed, axes 0.7-1.2 mm wide, flat and narrowly winged, margins scabrous;

secondary branches absent;

pedicels shorter than the spikelets, scabrous.

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.

3.3-3.8 mm long, 1-1.4 mm wide, solitary, appressed to the branches, in 2 rows.

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.

separated by 0.3-0.5 mm;

lower glumes 1.4-1.7 mm, 1/3 – 1/2 as long as the spikelets, 9-11-veined, glabrous;

upper glumes 2.7-3.4 mm, glabrous, 7-9-veined;

lower florets sterile;

lower lemmas 2.7-3.4 mm, glabrous, 5-veined, without evident cross venation;

lower paleas present;

upper lemmas 2.6-3.4 mm, apices rounded to acute, mucronate;

anthers 1.1-1.35 mm.

Caryopses

1.8-2 mm.

1.6-2.5 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.

= 36, 54, 72, 84.

Urochloa mutica

Urochloa subquadripara

Distribution
from FNA
AL; FL; MD; OR; SC; TX; HI; PR; Virgin Islands
[BONAP county map]
from USDA
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.)

Urochloa subquadripara, native to tropical Asia and Australasia, is established in Florida and, reportedly, Georgia, although no specimens documenting its presence in Georgia have been located. A weedy species that has been introduced into the tropics worldwide, it is reported to have good drought tolerance, and is used as forage in tropical Asia. Its weediness and drought tolerance suggest that it might also become a troublesome weed in some parts of the Flora region.

Urochloa subquadripara is similar to U. distachya (L.) T.Q. Nguyen, and the two taxa are sometimes treated as one species (e.g., Pohl 1980; Morrone and Zuloaga 1992, 1993). They are maintained here as separate species pending further research. Urochloa distachya supposedly has shorter (2.4-3 mm) spikelets and shorter (1.9-2.3 mm) upper florets.

Urochloa subquadripara can also be confused with the glabrous form of U. piligera, but it differs in having a well-developed palea and smaller (3.3-3.8 mm), well-separated spikelets.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Source FNA vol. 25, p. 494. FNA vol. 25, p. 501.
Parent taxa Poaceae > subfam. Panicoideae > tribe Paniceae > Urochloa Poaceae > subfam. Panicoideae > tribe Paniceae > Urochloa
Sibling taxa
U. adspersa, U. arizonica, U. arrecta, U. brizantha, U. ciliatissima, U. fusca, U. mosambicensis, U. panicoides, U. piligera, U. plantaginea, U. platyphylla, U. ramosa, U. reptans, U. subquadripara, U. texana, U. villosa
U. adspersa, U. arizonica, U. arrecta, U. brizantha, U. ciliatissima, U. fusca, U. mosambicensis, U. mutica, U. panicoides, U. piligera, U. plantaginea, U. platyphylla, U. ramosa, U. reptans, U. texana, U. villosa
Synonyms Panicum purpurascens, Brachiaria mutica Brachiaria subquadripara
Name authority (Forssk.) T.Q. Nguyen (Trin.) R.D. Webster
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