Pennisetum ciliare
Plants perennial; cespitose from a hard, knotty base, with or without rhizomes. Culms 10-150 cm, erect, sometimes branching at the aerial nodes, glabrous, sometimes scabrous beneath the panicle; nodes glabrous. Leaves green or glaucous; sheaths glabrous or pubescent, margins ciliate; ligules 0.5-3 mm, membranous, ciliate; blades 3-50 cm long, 2-13 mm wide, flat, glabrous or pubescent, margins ciliate or glabrous basally. Panicles 2-20 cm long, 4-35 mm wide, fully exerted from the sheaths, erect, green, brown, brown-purple, or dark purple; rachises terete, scabrous. Fascicles 11-37 per cm, disarticulating at maturity; fascicle axes 0.2-1.5 cm, with 1-12 spikelets; outer bristles 16-89, 0.3-11.7 mm, many exceeding the spikelets; inner bristles 7-20, 3.8-13.8 mm, fused to 1/4 of their length, flattened, grooved, ciliate; primary bristles 10.5-23 mm, long-ciliate, noticeably longer than the other bristles. Spikelets 2.5-5.6 mm, sessile, glabrous; lower glumes 1-3 mm, 0-1-veined; upper glumes 1.3-3.4 mm, about 1/2 as long as the spikelet, (0)1-3-veined; lower florets staminate or sterile; lower lemmas 2.5-5.3 mm, 3-7-veined; lower paleas absent or 2.5-5 mm; anthers absent or about 1.4 mm; upper florets not disarticulating at maturity; upper lemmas 2.2-5.4 mm, (3)5(6)-veined, margins glabrous; anthers 1.4-2.7 mm. Caryopses 1.2-1.9 mm long, 0.4-1 mm wide, concealed by the lemma and palea at maturity. 2n = 36, 45.
Distribution
Puerto Rico, Okla., N.Mex., Tex., La., Virgin Islands, Calif., N.Y., Pacific Islands (Hawaii), Ariz., Fla., Mo.
Discussion
Pennisetum ciliare is native to Africa, western Asia, and India. It now grows throughout the warmer, drier regions of the world, often as a forage crop, and is established in much of the southeastern United States. It is sometimes included in Cenchrus, based solely on the fusion of its bristles.
Selected References
None.