Plants annual or perennial, if perennial, growth habit various. Culms erect or decumbent, some¬times succulent or robust. Ligules membranous, membranous and ciliate, or lacerate; blades with the vascular bundles surrounded by 2 thick-walled sheaths, outer sheaths parenchymatous, chloroplasts few and unspecialized or absent. Photosynthesis C3. Spikelets ovoid, ellipsoid, or obovoid, glabrous, pilose, or tuberculate. Lower glumes 1/5 - 4/5 as long as the spikelets, usually 3-veined; upper glumes and lower lemmas usually 5-veined (rarely 7- or 9-veined); lower florets sterile or staminate; lower paleas present or absent; upper florets sometimes stipitate, indurate to membranous, smooth and shiny, or rugose, or finely pubescent, or with paired glands, x = 9 or 10, with some polyploids.

Discussion

Panicum subg. Phanopyrum is most abundant in wet forests of warm temperate and tropical regions. In the Western Hemisphere, its range extends from the southern United States through South America.

Selected References

None.

Lower Taxa

Panicum sect. Hemitonia, Panicum sect. Monticola, Panicum sect. Phanopyrum, Panicum sect. Verrucosa