Paspalum pleostachyum

Doll
Common names: Tropical paspalum
Treatment appears in FNA Volume 25.

Plants perennial; cespitose. Culms 80-110 cm, erect; nodes glabrous. Sheaths glabrous, sparsely pubescent apically; ligules 1-2.9 mm; blades to 62 cm long, 3-7 mm wide, mostly involute, pubescent above, glabrous below. Panicles terminal, with 3-15 racemosely arranged branches; branches 5.2-12.5 cm, divergent to spreading, terminating in a spikelet; branch axes 0.3-0.8 mm wide, very narrowly winged, scabrous. Spikelets 2.2-2.5 mm long, 1-1.3 mm wide, paired, appressed to the branch axes, elliptic to obovate, white to light stramineous. Lower glumes absent; upper glumes glabrous, 5-veined; lower lemmas glabrous, 3-veined; upper florets 1.4-2 mm, white to stramineous. Caryopses 1-1.6 mm, suborbicular, brown. 2n = unknown.

Discussion

Paspalum pleostachyum grows in sandy soil or rocky areas in Florida, the West Indies, and from northern South America to Brazil. It is usually found along the coast.

Selected References

None.

Lower Taxa

None.